… Not only did the central core resemble a ghost town – mostly because thousands of civil servants, backed by powerful unions, refuse to return to their office desks – but many of the walking routes I used to take through downtown have morphed into a distressing obstacle course of homeless people camped out on the sidewalks. In fact, the last time I felt like that – and I’ve been to some of the meanest cities in the world – was in Pretoria, South Africa, around the time of the BRICS summit last year, when a wrong turn to the diplomatic quarter brought a few anxious encounters. On many strolls through my former home, I shook my head in disbelief thinking, “This isn’t the Ottawa I know or love.”
