Ottawa is turning 200, and the city now has an anthem to match the occasion. The official song commemorating the bicentennial of Ottawa's founding has just been released, and according to the people behind it, the goal was never just to celebrate a founding date — it was to honour everything that came before it.
A gathering place long before 1826
While Ottawa's official founding is dated to 1826, the land the city sits on has served as a meeting point for people for thousands of years, long predating European settlement. The song's makers say that history was front of mind when writing and producing the track. Rather than framing the anniversary as the start of the story, the song leans into the idea that Ottawa has always been a place where people converge — a theme that resonates with the Ottawa River's long-standing role as a travel and trade corridor for Indigenous nations.
That framing matters for a city that's spent the past few years reckoning more openly with its history. Public installations, land acknowledgments at civic events, and programming from local cultural institutions have increasingly tried to widen the lens on what "200 years" actually means for Ottawa — acknowledging that the region's story doesn't begin with a surveyor's stake in the ground.
What the song sounds like
Details on the track's sound and credits are still emerging, but its release slots into what's shaping up to be a packed calendar of bicentennial programming across the city this year. Anniversary songs like this one are typically designed for broad, communal use — the kind of track that shows up at civic ceremonies, community festivals, and school assemblies throughout the milestone year. For a city gearing up for a full slate of 200th-anniversary events, having an official anthem gives organizers a unifying piece of media to build moments around, whether that's a fireworks show on Parliament Hill or a neighbourhood block party in the Glebe.
Why this matters for Ottawa right now
Milestone anniversaries are as much about self-image as they are about historical fact, and how a city chooses to tell its own story says a lot about where it sees itself heading. By centring the song's messaging on Ottawa as a long-standing gathering place rather than a 200-year-old invention, organizers are making a deliberate statement: the celebration is meant to be inclusive of Algonquin and other Indigenous histories tied to the land, not just a nod to colonial-era founding.
For Ottawa residents, that framing also opens the door to a broader conversation this year — one that goes beyond fireworks and festivals into how the city acknowledges the people who called this place home well before it had a name on a map. Expect the song to make appearances at official 200th-anniversary events throughout the coming months as the city leans into its bicentennial celebrations.
Source: CBC Ottawa
