Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Park designated a National Historic Site

In Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Park, the past is not only present – it’s fiercely protected. This green enclave just northeast of the city’s core has a thick cover of trees, curving streets without sidewalks, and hundreds of houses built for Ottawa’s elite and occupied by diplomats from around the world.Now it also has a plaque marking it as a National Historic Site. In a ceremony on Friday, Parks Canada will formally offer the 1.8-square-kilometre neighbourhood with that distinction. For some heritage advocates among the area’s 2,000 residents, this is an accomplishment that has been decades in the making – despite rising tensions around what heritage means.