RUNWAYS TO OTTAWA  – April 14, 2008

2nd EDITION

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

Welcome, Ottawa information, Message from Barry, Handy Hints, WARR HQ Reservations

 

Welcome

Welcome again to this format of keeping you, the WARRiors informed of WARR 2008, to wet your appetite and to prepare you for the event that will be the 27th running of the World Airline Road Race. Lots of things have happened since the last publication and once everything is finalized we will publish it in the next issue. We would like to include you all in this venture and to enable us to include more WARR happenings, you are invited to send information, challenges and any other WARR related articles for possible inclusion in future editions.

Geography

Ottawa is situated on the south bank of the Ottawa River, and contains the mouths of the Rideau River and Rideau Canal. The oldest part of the city (including what remains of Bytown) is known as Lower Town and occupies an area between the canal and the rivers. Across the canal to the west lies Centretown (often just called "downtown"), which is the city's financial and commercial hub. Between here and the Ottawa River, the slight elevation of Parliament Hill is home to many of the capital's landmark government buildings, and is the Legislative seat of Canada. As of June 29, 2007, the Rideau Canal, which stretches 202 km (126 mi) to Kingston, Fort Henry and four Martello towers in the Kingston area was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  There are also a number of rural communities (villages and hamlets) that lie beyond the greenbelt but are administratively part of the Ottawa municipality. Across the Ottawa River, which forms the border between Ontario and

Quebec, lies the city of Gatineau. Although formally and administratively separate cities in two separate provinces, Ottawa and Gatineau (along with a number of nearby municipalities) collectively constitute the National Capital Region, with a combined population exceeding one million residents, which

 

 

is considered a single metropolitan area. Ottawa itself is a single-tiered city, meaning it is in itself a census division and has no county or regional municipality government above it. Ottawa is made up of eleven historic townships, ten of which are from historic Carleton County and one from historic Russell. They are Cumberland, Fitzroy, Gloucester, Goulbourn, Huntley, March, Marlborough, Nepean, North Gower, Osgoode and Torbolton.

 

Christmas Lights - Parliament Hill

 

 

 

 

SHotel booking information

 

The WARR 2008 Headquarters Hotel is the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The Crowne Plaza Hotel would like to offer World Airline Road Race competitor’s special WARR rates. To check rates and reserve a room, WARR participants can visit the WARR 2008 website. The Crowne Plaza phone number is 1-800-227-0963

or 613-237-3600, EXT 6200. When making your reservations say you are with the  “27th Annual World Airline Road Race” group.

You can also make your reservations by going to our web site: http://www.worldairlineroadrace.org/

 

 

Message from Barry, for Team Captains

You were asked to send any outstanding forms and information to Barry by the end of March and by the time of this writing nothing has been received, which leads me to the conclusion that all relevant TC information is up to date.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WARR 2008 – Ottawa News

 

Transportation

Sparks Street, a pedestrian mall in the city's downtown

 

Ottawa is served by VIA Rail, a number of airlines that fly into Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, and inter-city bus companies such as Greyhound through the Ottawa Bus Central Station.

 

 The O-Train, Ottawa's light rail train system

 

The capital city of Canada is also served by a network of freeways, the main one being provincial Highway 417 (called The Queensway), Ottawa-Carleton Regional Road 174 (Formerly Provincial Highway 17), and the newly constructed Highway 416 (Veterans' Memorial Highway), connecting Ottawa to the rest of the 400-Series Highway network in Ontario. Highway 417 is also the Ottawa portion of the Trans-Canada Highway. The city also has a few Scenic Parkways (Promenades), such as the Ottawa River Parkway, and has a freeway connection to Autoroute 5 and Autoroute 50, in Hull. Ottawa's main mass transit service is OC Transpo (provided by the City of Ottawa). The Ottawa rapid transit system includes the transitway (a network of mostly grade-separated, extremely high-frequency, reserved bus rapid transit lanes with full stations instead of stops) and a light rail system called the O-Train.

 

WARR Team Captain

Have you contacted your TC about WARR 2008? If you do not know who the Team Captain for your airline is, contact me and I will send you the contact details

 

WARR Veterans

Recognition is given to all WARRiors who have achieved WARR Veteran Status and to reach this goal you should have participated and finished a specified number of WARRs namely, 10, 15, 20 and 25. Anything before 10 does not count, 11 to 14 also does not count as with 16 to 19 and 21 to 24.

Barry de Kock - bdk@iburst.co.za

 

 

 

 

Visa:

Check on the Canadian Government website as to which countries requires visas. As we get more information we will also update and advise.

 

Vaccinations:

Generally not required unless you come from a yellow fever area. (Africa, South America, etc.)

 

Quarantine:

As with all countries we have visited before there are certain restricted and banned items. More information on this in later editions of the newsletter.

 

Electricity:

110v and plugs are similar to the USA

 

Money:

Refer to this website for current exchange rates  

http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic

 

GST:

There is a 5% GST.

 

Canadiana

Canada one-dollar coin

Loonie is the name Canadians have given the gold-coloured, bronze-plated, one-dollar coin shortly after its introduction in 1987. It bears images of a common loon, a well-known Canadian bird, on the reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse

Two-dollar coin

Toonie is the name of the two-dollar coin, a combination of the number "two" with the name of the Loonie

 

About Canada

Ø       Canada has a population of approximately 30 million people

Ø       There are 2 official languages - English and French

Ø       The first Prime Minister was Sir John A. Macdonald. At present, the P.M. is Stephen Harper

Ø       Canada's largest city is Toronto, followed by Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa

Ø       The country's capital is Ottawa

Ø       Ten million square kms of land make up the country, making it the second largest country (next to Russia)

Ø       Canada is divided up into 10 Provinces and 3 territories The National Anthem is 'Oh Canada'

Ø       The Maple leaf and beaver are Canada's national symbols

Ø       Canada has six time zones (The easternmost, in Newfoundland, the Atlantic, the Eastern, the Central, the Rocky Mountain and the Pacific)

Ø       Canada's main natural resources are natural gas, oil, gold, coal, copper, iron ore, nickel, potash, uranium and zinc, wood and water.

Ø       Canada's leading exports are automobile vehicles and parts, machinery and equipment, high-technology products, oil, natural gas, metals, and forest and farm products.

Ø       Leading industries include automobile manufacturing, pulp and paper, iron and steel work, machinery and equipment manufacturing, mining, extraction of fossil fuels, forestry and agriculture.

Ø       The coastline (243,792 km) is the longest in the world

Ø       Canada has the longest covered bridge in the world. It's located in Hartland, New Brunswick and is 1,282 feet long.

Ø       The longest street in the world is Yonge Street (in Toronto), and is 1,900.5 kilometers long

Ø       Also in Toronto, the CN Tower stands at 1,815 feet and 5 inches high. It was completed in 1975 and is the tallest freestanding structure in the world

Ø       Anyone in Canada can send a letter to a member of Parliament (while it's in session) without paying postage

Ø       Life expectancy in Canada is 75.6 years for males and 81.7 years for females (which ranks in the world's longest)

Ø       Canada has the longest national highway in the world - the Trans-Canada highway (7,821 kilometers)

Ø       Ice hockey and lacrosse are Canada's national sports.

 

Future WARR's

It is exciting and rewarding to be a Host Airline Team. The International Committee is now accepting requests for those teams interested in hosting a future WARR in the years 2009 thru 2012. We will gladly answer any, and all inquires and will conduct a Future WARR's Meeting immediately following the WARR Ottawa Team Captain's Meeting. If Your Airline is interested in sponsoring a WARR in the future, please send email to: rick.hotte@sympatico.ca

 

 

 

Well that’s about it for this edition of Runways to WARR Ottawa 2008, remember, you are WARR and without you WARR is a non starter.

               

 

We have supplied information as best we can source it you should check out the facts yourself and not rely entirely on our information.