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Hull, QuebecHull is a community in western Quebec, Canada and is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa, Ontario. As part of the Canadian capital, it contains offices for twenty thousand fonctionnaires or civil servants. Hull was founded in 1800 by Philemon Wright as a remote lumber camp in what was at the time mosquito-infested wilderness at the head of navigation of the Ottawa River. While Wright arrived by way of Woburn, Massachusetts he gave the settlement the name of his original home town Kingston-upon-Hull in the United Kingdom. The Gatineau River, like the Ottawa River, was very much the preserve of the draveurs, people who would use the river to transport logs from lumber camps until they arrived downriver; the Gatineau River drains into the Ottawa River, which ends at Montral, Qubec. The log-filled Ottawa River (as viewed from Hull) appeared on the back of the Canadian one-dollar bill until it was replaced by a dollar coin (the "loonie") in 1987; the very last of the dwindling activity of the draveurs on these rivers ended a few years later. Ottawa was founded later, as the terminus of the Rideau Canal built under the command of Col. John By as part of fortifications and defenses constructed after the War of 1812. Originally named Bytown, Ottawa did not become the Canadian capital until the mid-1800's and then only because its greater distance from the international border left it less vulnerable to foreign attack. Nothing remains of the original 1800 settlement; the downtown Vieux-Hull sector was destroyed by a terrible fire in 1900 which also destroyed the original pont des Chaudires, a road bridge which has since been rebuilt to join Ottawa to Hull at Victoria Island. Navigation beyond Ottawa-Hull was and still remains difficult as watercraft must be removed from the Ottawa River due to obstacles posed by rapids such as the Rapides des Chaudires or kettle rapids. The Promenade de Portage, a main street in the centre of Hull, was notorious for drunken revelry for many years due to less-restrictive Qubec laws on bar closing times, minimum drinking age, sale of beer in corner stores or dpanneurs and sale of pornographic films which attracted crowds from more-conservative Ontario directly across the river. Hull now depends primarily on the civil service as an economic mainstay, although two paper mills (Scott Paper and the E.B. Eddy division of Domtar Inc.) still retain some industrial facilities on the Ottawa River in the centre of Hull, Qubec. It is also the home to the Casino de Lac Leamy and to the Canadian Museum of Civilisation directly opposite Parliament Hill. Hull is in the Outaouais region and is nominally located within the City of Gatineau; the name "Gatineau" itself more specifically had been used to refer to a mostly-suburban area of Qubec on the opposite side of the Gatineau River. In 2002, the Parti Qubcois, leading the provincial government, forced the cities of Hull, Gatineau, Aylmer, Buckingham and Masson-Angers to fuse into one city. Although Hull was the most known and important city of the lot, and despite the fact it had 200 years of history, the name Gatineau was chosen for the new city, because it had more inhabitants and it had a french name, the independantist government wanting to eradicate english toponomies. Hull-Gatineau had been the most popular choice in the polls. In 2004, there was a referendum to decide whether Hull would remain in Gatineau, but the population reacted with indifference, and the status quo prevailed. Approximately 86% of the hullois or hulloise residents speak French as their first language; more than half of the city's population is bilingual.
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