Ottawa Citizen recognized for 175 years of covering Canada’s capital

The Ottawa Citizen was celebrated at a special ceremony last week for 175 years of serving generations of readers in Canada’s capital.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson presented editor-in-chief Nicole MacAdam with a “Key to the City”.

Launched in March 1845 as The Packet — the publication became the Ottawa Citizen six years later. The newspaper is Ottawa’s oldest continuously operated business.

The honour was first announced in the winter of 2020, when the Citizen marked its 175th anniversary, and just weeks before the pandemic began.

“COVID was both a blessing and a curse for local news,” MacAdam said in a story celebrating the occasion. “It demonstrated how important accurate, timely, information is while robbing us of the revenue we need to survive.”

You can watch the full presentation in the video embedded below.