When textile artist Gabe Thirlwall moved to Ottawa from Toronto in 2006 with her partner, she noticed that the culture of her new city was a marked contrast from Canada's biggest metropolis.

"In Toronto, you can always see celebrities walking around like someone from a band or a movie but here, it was different. But then I noticed in Ottawa you would see a politician that would be involved in some scandal and it would be: 'Oh wasn't that the guy who got the dead people to vote for him?'" observes Thirlwall.