Sigh.
There was an entire West Wing episode about just this, except in that case the fictional president noticed his mic was left on and used it to make an “off the record” swipe at an opponent, then claim he never meant to be overheard or recorded.
As opposed to whatever the hell Trump is doing.
This and the wandering Markham Moose are good reminders to urban Canadians that they’re, you know, in Canada.
Not the first time we’ve seen a bear within the city proper, although not right downtown like this. There are shallow spots on the river where it’s possible for animals migrating from the Gatineau Hills to cross (and downtown is right on the river). Haven’t seen any deer, coyotes or timber wolves… yet. We do, however, have entire colonies of raccoons right downtown.
Well heck, WE have entire colonies of raccoons (and regular coyote sightings) in downtown Chicago…and we’re not even in Canada!
Well, Liz, imagine the Ottawa River wending more or less Southwest to Northeast. On the South bank, you have downtown Ottawa - Parliament Hill, the Market, etc… Directly across on the North shore is downtown Hull, i.e., walking distance across one of the bridges.
If you follow the river where it takes a jog North, and cross the Alexandria Bridge between the National Gallery in Ottawa and the Museum of Civilisation in Hull, then keep going West on Allumettières (the 148), which more or less follows the Northern edges of downtown Hull while heading out to Aylmer and points West (Quyon, Shawville), you can often encounter coyotes on the bike paths along Allumettières, but timber wolves have been seen by my brother, who lives on that side of the river, around the Lac des Fées turnoff as well (about 4 km from the Ottawa side of the bridge).
You can take the Lac-des-Fées Parkway to St.-Raymond near the hospital, and from there, one can continue along Cité-des-Jeunes. Cité-des-Jeunes is interesting: residential on one side, schools (two CEGEPs, one high school and a government language training facility) and Parc Gatineau on the other. My bus to work used to pass by there: it’s a good place to see the occasional deer down by the road.
A picture being worth a thousand words and all, here’s a map:
The small purple star in the lower right is roughly where I am. We share a driveway with our neighbour: their garage opens into our backyard and hosts a small clan of raccoons. We get skunks and rabbits visiting as well, and used to see a mated pair of Mallards on our front lawn every summer.
The red oval is where my brother has spotted timber wolves. The blue star North of it is where I have seen deer (several times). The Royal Ottawa Golf Club you can see at the left is home to Canada geese, red foxes, and (much to the club’s chagrin) beavers. (Geese are seen all over both shores of the river when they come through.) The Rideau River at Billings Bridge is about 2 km South of where I live (the river loops West a bit): it’s home to Mallards, black ducks, the occasional blue heron and the occasional loon.
And that traffic island near Chinatown I’ve circled in pink? It’s been home to a colony of raccoons the entire time I’ve lived in Ottawa, some 30 years.
So, you can see, we get a lot of wildlife very close to downtown. To give the scale, the distance between Parliament Hill and the Royal Ottawa CC is about 6 km. I think the only thing keeping wolves and deer on the other side is that they’d have to pass through heavily populated heavy traffic areas even before they make it to the river, and they are more retiring than bears.
You can see the Byward Market, where the bear came to visit, Northeast of Parliament Hill - it’s a 5 minute walk to Parliament. I’m a big city boy originally from Montreal, so I have a fair idea of what you likely encounter in Chicago, but I have to say that Ottawa’s wildlife is more pervasive than I’m used to. I rather enjoy it.
I didn’t remember this when you first reported it, but now that you’ve given the lay of the land…
Several years ago a friend of mine wound up chatting with some Japanese tourists visiting Toronto. One asked where was the best place to photograph a bear around here. My friend explained bears don’t go into cities.
Now I know to advise they should wait until their tour gets to the national capital. And yeah, rather nice to think the national capital has all those non-human critters in it.
Does Canada own the IP for orange body-spray?
Uh-huh.
And if you believe that, I have some nice beachfront property in Nevada to sell you.
Talk about your Bell-faced lie.
Telus about it.
Yeah, fo’ Shaw.
Rogers that.
Wind these puns gonna end?
When the Chatr dies down a bit.
The first part made me smile.
The second part made me laugh out loud.
Because of the notion that French would be secondary, hidden behind a second action (pressing 2)? 
Because, as a Canadian, every interaction with an telephone menu system starts with an introduction (which should have been presented in both languages), followed by being given the option to continue the interaction in French by pressing 2.
