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September/October 2005 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Ottawa Valley The Inside Story Editor’s Notebook Reverberations Explorer À la carte Mosaic Re:Sources

Every prime minister of Canada who occupies 24 Sussex Drive tastes, from time to time, the sharp nasal sting of sulphur on the morning air. The wags in the press gallery would say that’s the smell of tax dollars going up in smoke. In fact, it is what made Ottawa, which sits at the heart of a 1,130-kilometre-long, rocky and heavily forested valley.

The official residence of the prime minister is one of the iconic television-news backdrops of the capital. It overlooks a broad expanse of the Ottawa River. To the north, rivière Gatineau tumbles into it from the hinterlands of Quebec. Just west of the residence are the falls of the Rideau River, which empties into the Ottawa from Ontario. The city and the valley are awash in water — creeks, streams, rapids, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, wetlands. And beyond the city’s limits mixed forests of pine, maple, oak, white elm, beech, ash and hemlock roll off into the distance like a great, green carpet.

Lumbering, then tree harvesting for the pulp and paper plants that supply the fragrance of sulphur, opened the valley to settlement. Long before Ottawa became the political capital of Canada, it was the lumber capital, the centre of an industry that fed masts to the ships of the British Navy, squared timbers for the construction of bridges and cathedrals and the studs and rafters for house frames across North America.

The small cities, towns and villages along the Ottawa Valley which supplied the wood that built the capital still extract a living from the forest. But the people of these communities also farm, work in factories and host a thriving tourism industry. We asked James Raffan, who doesn’t live along the river but is close enough to it to understand the meaning of "pisherogue" and other Valley expressions, to introduce us to some of its residents and to the character of this distinctive slice of Canada. His article is accompanied by a short story that explains "pisherogue" and other such Valleyisms. Our look at the region also includes a concise history and a selection of archival images of Ottawa, which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its incorporation this year, as well as a poster map of the area, whose residents define themselves as inhabitants of what they simply call the Valley. On the reverse side of the poster map is a detailed satellite image of the drainage basin of the Ottawa River. And if these elements merely whet your interest, slide into the "CG In Depth" feature on our website for more on the Ottawa Valley and its residents.

This editorial package is the first in a series of regional profiles and poster maps that we plan to publish in every September/October issue. Within Canada, we are Newfoundlanders or Manitobans or Quebecers. But within our home provinces or territories, we are Gulf Islanders or we hail from Peace River Country or the Annapolis Valley. The people who call these regions home share a history, a manner of speaking and turns of phrase, the means of earning a livelihood and dreams and hopes for the future. Our stories will introduce you to them and to the landscapes they inhabit. We have assembled a list of the regions, which tend to be a little fuzzy at the margins, that we want to explore but have not yet made a final decision on the next in the series.

— Rick Boychuk

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