In 1908, the communities of Janeville, Clarkstown and Clandeboye were joined to form the village of Eastview. In 1913, Eastview was incorporated as a town. Originally it was a popular destination for civil servants who wished to live at a distance from downtown. It later saw a large influx of French Canadians and became the main francophone area in the capital. During the Great Depression, Eastview held the attention of the entire nation, as it became a public forum for national debates on birth control during the Eastview Birth Control Trial, which lasted from 1936 to 1937. Significant controversy erupted when Dorothea Palmer was arrested for distributing birth control information to the poorer, predominantly Catholic neighbourhoods. Later, in 1963 it became a city, and in 1969 was renamed after the recently deceased Governor-General of Canada, Georges Vanier. The City of Eastview erected a memorial at the intersection of Marier Avenue, Dagmar Avenue and Hannah Street. It is dedicated to citizens from Eastview who gave their lives in Canadian military conflicts.
Present
Starting with an area closer to the Rideau River, Vanier is increasingly considered a target for gentrification. It is one of the last relatively inexpensive Ottawa neighbourhoods with a desirable location next to downtown. The neighbourhood is becoming increasingly popular among young families thanks to the only publicly funded school in Ottawa based on Waldorf education, Trille des Bois, excellent standard publicly funded schools and an active community association. Vanier offers a wide choice of retail shops, strip malls, eateries, and bars. Both subsidized and self-financed housing is available here, with several existing and proposed upscale condominiums and infill developments. The population on the western edge of Vanier closer to the Rideau River, especially the Kingsview Park neighbourhood, is among the more affluent. Like nearby Lowertown, Ottawa's Vanier neighbourhood is home to a number of French-speaking immigrants from Africa and elsewhere. It is also the site of the urban Maple Sugar Festival held in spring, and home to an outdoor Catholic shrine, the Grotte de Lourdes. The neighbourhood is represented by one federal and one provincial riding, both called Ottawa—Vanier, and is represented by MP Mona Fortier federally and MPP Lucille Collard provincially. It is one of the staunchly Liberalfederal ridings in Canada, having voted for the party consistently since the riding's creation in 1935.
