2026 Ottawa Municipal Election

[BlackRedGold]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Do Ottawa voters have something against leftist mayors?
Ottawa has not elected a leftist candidate as mayor in nearly 50 years. Does Jeff Leiper have a chance?

By Mohammed Adam, Ottawa Citizen
Published May 22, 2026 | 3 minute read

As the 2026 mayoral campaign gathers pace, Jeff Leiper is not only fighting incumbent Mark Sutcliffe for the top job, he is running against history. Ottawa has not elected a leftist candidate as mayor in nearly 50 years. The last one was Marion Dewar in 1978.

Do Liberals Watson and Chiarelli not count as leftists?

[phil235]

Originally Posted by BlackRedGold

Do Liberals Watson and Chiarelli not count as leftists?

Neither was particularly left wing, so I would say no.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by BlackRedGold

Do Liberals Watson and Chiarelli not count as leftists?

Watson flew a Liberal flag of convenience. He started his political life in the PC party, and heeled to small-c conservative and "blue liberal" political ideals his entire career.

[J.OT13]

I would certainly not count Chiarelli as a leftist, though he did get the ball rolling on rail transit. Watson was surprisingly low-key leftist with the bike infrastructure. It was under him we got our first on street bike lanes with Laurier despite heavy opposition.

[J.OT13]

Luloff candidat, mais avec une forte opposition sur sa route
Par Sébastien Pierroz, Initiative de journalisme local
4 juin 2026 à 04h07

Reconnu coupable pour conduite avec facultés affaiblies il y a trois mois, le conseiller Matthew Luloff briguera bien un troisième mandat dans le quartier Orléans-Est–Cumberland aux prochaines élections municipales. Mais déjà, six candidats se dressent contre lui.

https://www.ledroit.com/actualites/actua...sur-sa-route-KLY3M27KOFHZNKJGTLEZE4FV64/

[rocketphish]

Mark Sutcliffe wants another term as mayor, here's what he'd do with four more years
Sutcliffe said he "inherited a mess" when he was elected mayor in 2022. Here's what he plans to run on in the 2026 municipal election.

By Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 15, 2026 | Last updated 12 hours ago

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe will be campaigning on his record as he seeks a second four-year term at the head of the council table while focusing on improving transit, enhancing public safety, building more homes and adding more affordable homes.

At the unofficial launch of his campaign on May 25, Sutcliffe said he “inherited a mess” when he was elected mayor in 2022.

“After the trucker convoy, the pandemic, the light rail inquiry, Ottawa was struggling, and city council was toxic and dysfunctional,” Sutcliffe said. “So we got to work, we got everybody working together in the community and at city council, and we went from division to collaboration. We went from gridlock to real progress. We went from Ottawa falling behind to moving Ottawa forward, and we got a lot done in our priority areas, including public transit, public safety, affordable housing, and more. But the work isn’t done.”

Sutcliffe said he spent his first two years as mayor building consensus with councillors and “bringing everyone together to resolve those issues and get the city on the right track again.”

He cautioned voters against making a “U-turn” to the divisive politics of the past and said the city can’t afford “risky ideas that will lead to huge tax increases.”

Fixing public transit in Ottawa

Sutcliffe touted the purchase of 500 new buses, including a fleet of hybrid electric buses, and launching LRT Lines 2 and 4 while boosting investments in OC Transpo by almost 30 per cent during this council term.

He pointed to the hiring of OC Transpo general manager Rick Leary in March and signed a memorandum of understanding with Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria in April to “reaffirm” the province’s commitment to upload LRT costs to Metrolinx.

Many of the problems plaguing OC Transpo — from the aging fleet of diesel buses to the mechanical issue that forced 41 train cars out of service in January — had roots in decisions made by previous councils, he said.

“Everything about the transit file has been extremely challenging and these are decisions that this term of council inherited,” Sutcliffe said.

“There were a lot of decisions that were made by previous terms of council, and those of us who joined in 2022 have been cleaning that up. It took us years to get into this situation. It’s going to take time to get out of this situation. It’s very frustrating.”

Sutcliffe said there has been positive progress with onboarding more e-buses and gradual improvements to bus reliability metrics, along with plans to extend the rail line east to Orléans and the eventual west extension.

“It’s getting better. It needs to be even better than it is, but it’s going in the right direction,” he said. “We’re putting the pieces in place for a much better public transit system going forward.”

Getting the province to upload the LRT

Sutcliffe has repeatedly referred to the Metrolinx deal as a “game changer” equating to $85 million a year in budget savings that could be reinvested in other public transit priorities.

A deal with Metrolinx would hand over construction, maintenance and ownership of the rail line and its assets to the Crown agency, while OC Transpo would continue to oversee daily operations, scheduling and hiring.

“It’s the same deal that they have with cities like Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton,” Sutcliffe said. “We’re the exception in Ontario and that’s what I’ve been saying all along, it’s not fair … We have to pay the construction and maintenance costs. They don’t, so let’s move Ottawa in the same direction that these other cities are going.”

Sutcliffe said he’s hoping the deal will accelerate plans to open Line 3 rail service to Barrhaven, Stittsville and Kanata.

Lansdowne 2.0

Two of Sutcliffe’s opponents in the mayoral race — Coun. Jeff Leiper and community organizer Neil Saravanamuttoo — were vocal opponents of the Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment, where construction is set to continue through the next council term and beyond.

Proponents of the deal called it a big win for Sutcliffe during his first term, while opponents questioned the complexity and terms of the multi-phase deal. Several critics likened the Lansdowne deal to the Ādisōke library project, which is running well over budget and a year behind schedule.

“Everything I’ve heard about the Lansdowne project so far, it’s early days, but it’s on schedule and things are progressing well,” Sutcliffe said. “With any major construction project, there’s always the risk of delays and cost overruns, and we know that the supply chain is not great right now, so there have been extra costs (with Ādisōke).

“We built in a huge contingency fund into the Lansdowne project based on recommendations we received from experts,” Sutcliffe said.

Sutcliffe said the Ādisōke project differs from Lansdowne in that 100 per cent of the library construction costs are being covered by taxpayers in a partnership between the City of Ottawa and the federal government.

“At Lansdowne Park, a huge portion of the costs are being covered by other revenues that we’ve been able to generate — the air rights and revenues that come from the use of the facility — so that’s one of the ways that we’ve insured taxpayers from unnecessary costs at Lansdowne,” Sutcliffe said.

“Instead of this being a project that costs taxpayers $420 million it’s going to cost them about $130 million but we’re going to get $420 million worth of value,” he said. “Most of the time when we build a community centre, a library, a swimming pool, a skating rink, 100 per cent of the cost is covered by taxpayers. In this case, it’s only about 25 per cent that taxpayers have to chip in, and the rest comes from other sources.”

Continuing the gains for Ottawa police

Sutcliffe campaigned in 2022 on a promise to hire more police officers and the city has hired nearly 200 police officers and 120 paramedics during his term.

Ottawa police recently implemented a staff stabilization plan and a district policing to deploy more resources downtown and across the city.

“This is something that the community wants to see,” Sutcliffe said in a recent video. “No matter where you live in Ottawa, you want to feel safe in your neighbourhood and you want to feel safe when you come downtown and when you go to the ByWard Market.

“Policing is not the only solution. There are a lot of other things being worked on, but people do feel safer when there is an increased police presence,” he said. “We have a massive city. It’s hard to cover that whole area geographically with a police service, but every part of the city will see more service going forward as part of this district policing model.”

Running on experience

Sutcliffe’s campaign team highlighted several achievements during the current council term, like doubling the investment into fixing roads and sidewalks, launching an ambitious housing strategy and maintaining “the lowest property tax increases of any major city in the country.”

“I want to continue collaborating with my colleagues on Ottawa City Council and keep the city moving forward,” Sutcliffe said. “I don’t want to go back to the way things were four years ago, where we were dealing with issues like the convoy and fights over free public transit, and those kinds of things. We’ve got a good thing going right now around the council table with some very strong colleagues, and we’re working together in the best interest of the community, and I want to keep going with that.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/mark-sutc...r-heres-what-hed-do-with-four-more-years

[rocketphish]

Jeff Leiper's plan if he becomes Ottawa's new mayor
Jeff Leiper wants to make the jump from the council table to the mayor's chair. Here's what he'd do if he wins the 2026 municipal election.

By Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 16, 2026 | Last updated 4 hours ago

One of the most progressive voices around the council table for the last 12 years, Jeff Leiper says he would hit the ground running as Ottawa’s mayor.

“I think the record of my time as city councillor has been one of effectiveness at getting some significant investment in my ward, of being very responsive to residents’ concerns about the ward, and that comes from understanding how City Hall actually works,” said Leiper, who has represented Kitchissippi since 2014.

Leiper chairs the planning and housing committee and serves as a member of the transit, built heritage and finance and corporate services committees.

“That understanding can really only be developed by working in City Hall for some period of time,” he said. “I know how City Hall works, I know the people, I know the mechanisms, I know the statutes, I know the limitations, I know the opportunities and the possibilities. I think I have been a very effective city councillor and the residents of Ottawa should expect I will bring that same level of effectiveness to my role as mayor.”

Fixing public transit

Leiper said he would reverse the cuts made a year ago in OC Transpo’s “New Ways to Bus” rollout and would restore “comprehensive” citywide bus service.

Electric buses are finally arriving after lengthy supply chain delays and the LRT is on a path to being fully repaired, which will stabilize bus service and “get us back to the train service that we that we paid for,” Leiper said.

“But once we get that fundamental stabilization done, we need to make transit a much more attractive option to attract ridership back. Part of that is to reverse the cuts that were made so that the buses arrive more frequently and the routes are more comprehensive.

Leiper said he would implement a strategy of regular bus acquisitions “so we don’t wind up in another situation like the one we’re in today” with a large number of buses reaching the end of their useful life cycle at the same time.

Leiper said he would offer a “service guarantee” that includes compensation for riders when transit service falls short of targets and would restore seats on the transit commission for non-elected citizen representatives.

“The citizen representation can help to restore some of the trust on the part of residents that OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa are working to deliver the service that they expect and deserve,” he said.

More affordable housing

Leiper pointed to the city’s massive overhaul of its zoning bylaw that is expected to change the shape of neighbourhoods across the region with Ottawa’s population projected to swell to 1.7 million — an increase of more than 500,000 residents — in the next 25 years.

“More permissive zoning will allow more housing to be built in the neighbourhoods that already exist and will help to address some of that supply issue,” said Leiper. “But, ultimately, I don’t think we can rely on the market alone to deliver truly affordable housing. That’s going to be largely the result of encouraging our not-for-profit sector to build more housing, so I want to leverage city lands in order to achieve 1,500 units of not-for-profit housing built per year.”

Leiper said not-for-profit housing doesn’t strictly imply subsidized or social housing and can encompass a range of prices.

“Once you build it, even if it’s approaching market price when it is first built, because it’s not for profit, over time it will become more and more affordable when you remove that profit motive,” he said.

“Building lots of not-for-profit housing is going to be one of the keys to addressing the affordable housing crisis,” Leiper said, “and I think we can encourage that using city land to the maximum extent possible.”

Transparency at City Hall

Leiper was a vocal opponent of high-profile projects like the Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment and the Tewin housing project, where he said decisions had already been made by the time staff reports were presented to councillors.

“By the time those reports came to committee, there was insufficient time left to have real public debate, and I made my concerns around that clear in the Lansdowne debate,” he said.

“One of the most egregious was the decision to add Tewin into the urban boundary, which was done virtually on the fly during the last official plan process.”

Leiper said he would disclose details to the public earlier in the process “and have real debates about the direction which we want to take the city.”

He described the budget process as “broken.”

“In September we establish a tax target and then the budget, which has largely already been crafted, is shoehorned into that tax target,” he said. “My commitment is to start the budget process much earlier, gathering what residents’ priorities are and then — over the course of many months — to present options to people for what we could do in the budget with full transparency around what that would cost and how it might be paid for.”

How he would improve public safety

Leiper said any increase to the Ottawa police budget would be met with a proportional increase for alternative response programs, whether that’s the ANCHOR program, outreach programs or mobile crisis intervention teams.

With the province pulling funding for supervised consumption sites, Leiper said there are ways the city can step in to fill the gap.

“There’s a number of different ways of helping communities to be more safe using non-police resources that could be funded through a diversion of the cost savings from closing down the safer consumption sites and putting those into alternative response to police, but we’re not doing that now,” Leiper said. “It is clearly the province’s job to do that, but I think we have a responsibility to keep neighbourhoods safe and to keep people who use drugs safe.”

How he would lobby the Ontario government differently

Leiper said he would take a more aggressive approach with lobbying the province for local priorities.

“The very cautious approach that Mark Sutcliffe is taking to the relationship with the province doesn’t seem to be yielding a lot of fruit,” Leiper said. “I don’t think that we are being as vocal as we need to be to ensure that Ottawa is getting the provincial help it needs to address issues across a whole broad range of issues. I think that we could afford to be more vocal and firmer in our communications with the province about what Ottawa needs.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/jeff-leiper-plan-election-2026

[kwoldtimer]

What does "a proportional increase for alternative response programs" actually mean?

[phil235]

I like that Leiper is focused on transit (kind of a no-brainer), but I'm a little worried that he is talking about frequency and coverage. With limited resources, that is a recipe for failure. Frequency has to come first. Beef that up to a point where people have reasonable connection options, rebuild trust and ridership and then worry about expanding the system.

[lrt's friend]

New ways to bus needs to be revamped to speed up trips and reduce the number of transfers that make transit so impractical. We made changes as if phase 2 was already operational.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

What does "a proportional increase for alternative response programs" actually mean?

It's code for he doesn't want the police budget to increase. If we are being more charitable he doesn't want it to increase disproportionately.

Meanwhile it's all good news. I guess money grows on trees.

[rocketphish]

Neil Saravanamuttoo promises to 'shake things up' if he is Ottawa's new mayor
The economist is making responsible city spending the top priority of his mayoral campaign in the 2026 municipal election.

By Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 17, 2026 | Last updated 4 hours ago

As a community organizer with an extensive background in economics, Neil Saravanamuttoo is making responsible city spending the top priority of his mayoral campaign.

“I’m an economist, so money is where my analysis starts,” Saravanamuttoo said, “and it’s really just so that City Hall has money to be able to invest in what matters to us. Things like a functioning transit system, housing options that people can afford.

“I would say we’re actually not doing that right now. If you look at the big spending decisions that are coming out of City Hall, they’re really not what residents are asking for, instead, a lot of those big spending decisions line up with the developers.”

Saravanamuttoo pointed to two recent contentious council decisions to approve the Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment and to greenlight the Tewin community development planned for the city’s rural southeast.

A number of councillors and community advocates opposed Lansdowne 2.0, which passed by a narrow 15-10 margin in November. A motion to halt the Tewin development was defeated by a slimmer 7-5 committee vote after concerns were raised over a lack of consultation with federally recognized First Nations, the lack of transit infrastructure and the costs associated with extending municipal services to the area.

“The big spending decisions are lining up with the priorities of powerful developers, not ordinary residents,” said Saravanamuttoo. “These are both investments that I see very few people in the community asking for, whereas I see a lot of demand for better transit, for community recreational services, for frankly just getting the roads fixed and keeping up with basic services.”

Financial transparency at City Hall

Saravanamuttoo has pledged to make the city’s financial accounting more transparent through an initiative he calls Open Books 100 Days.

“This is all about transparency,” he said, “and how we spend our money and how City Hall makes decisions. We are going to make the make the financial accounts much more transparent, much more evident to ordinary citizens that just want to understand what’s going on.”

Saravanamuttoo said the City of Ottawa spends more than neighbouring cities on basics from installing speed bumps to commemorative benches. While those may seem like relatively minor expenses, the open-book policy would expose more examples “that are much bigger and much more significant in terms of whether we’re getting good value for money for the taxes that we’re paying,” he said.

“When we open the books, people will start looking at how much we’re paying for different services and products and (asking whether) it’s reasonable.”

Fixing public transit and a promise of a ‘buck a ride’

Saravanamuttoo’s campaign has released a four-point path to improving OC Transpo reliability and restoring ridership, beginning with his “buck-a-ride” pitch.

“We have to recognize that for transit to work, it needs to be reliable, frequent, and affordable. And right now, OC Transpo is none of those,” he said.

OC Transpo management acknowledged there will only be “incremental” improvements in the short term until it receives more buses, hires more mechanics and solves the technical issues hampering LRT service, Saravanamuttoo said.

“So, if we want to get people back onto the system, which is an absolute must to revitalizing OC Transpo, we can start with affordability,” he said. “We’ve asked transit riders to go through an awful lot in recent years, and so this is the appropriate price that we should be charging for the service that we are providing.”

One-dollar rides would be capped at $40 per month, which would eliminate the need for a monthly pass.

Saravanamuttoo is also calling for “truth in transit” to address issues in the decision-making process.

“We saw the decisions that were made (through the LRT inquiry) that got us into this mess in the first place,” he said. “If they had been put out to public scrutiny, we would never have made those decisions.”

Saravanamuttoo is calling for a “total network redesign” to address the numerous complaints from the “New Ways to Bus” route overhaul in 2025. He’s also proposing new ways to fund transit by “monetizing” the lands around stations and along transit corridors with initiatives like the sale of air rights.

Public safety and alternative programs

Saravanamuttoo said he will be releasing his full public safety platform as the campaign progresses, but said he’s a “big fan” of alternative responses like the city’s ANCHOR program. He was a board member of the Centretown Community Health Centre when that project was first brought forward.

“It’s a model that’s worked extremely well in other cities and Ottawa, frankly, is just catching up,” he said. “We should be doing this across the whole city, not just in a fairly modest catchment zone.”

The Ottawa Police Service budget would be subject to the same scrutiny that Saravanamuttoo said he would be asking of all other departments in the city.

“I believe very strongly that when I look at the city budget, there are opportunities to spend the existing money much more effectively and I believe the same opportunities exist within the policing budget,” he said. “The recent auditor general’s report on the policing budget would suggest something similar.”

Bringing in the public’s voice

Saravanamuttoo is pledging to give residents a more meaningful voice at the council table by “returning local control to local communities,” he said.

“Everyone that I meet across the city cares deeply about Ottawa, and they look at the city and say it has so much potential, but it’s unrealized potential. We’ve just left so many opportunities on the table.

“People care about their local communities, they have ideas about how to improve those local communities, but they’re just not given the opportunity to be a part of the solution.”

Experience outside of government

Saravanamuttoo is campaigning on his extensive experience as an economist, his role as a political outsider willing to “shake things up” at City Hall and his willingness to fight against special interests with “undue influence” on the decision-making process.

“I have the economic expertise that we need to make sure that this city gets back on track in terms of responsible city spending, that’s number 1,” he said. “And frankly, at this point we need an outsider who’s ready to shake things up, because it’s not working as well as the people of Ottawa need it to work. We see that in the track record it has on managing big projects, the most recent of which is the new Ādisōke library, which is behind schedule and over-budget again.

“I’m an outsider but I’ve quickly developed insider knowledge about how City Hall works, how the public finances work in a way that very few people have,” he said. “I’m ready to fight for the people of Ottawa, because right now it’s unfortunate to say that City Hall has been captured by special interests — a handful of powerful developers that have undue influence over city hall decisions — and I’m ready to take them on.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/neil-saravanamuttoo-plan-election-2026

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

It's code for he doesn't want the police budget to increase. If we are being more charitable he doesn't want it to increase disproportionately.

Meanwhile it's all good news. I guess money grows on trees.

Not sure how you got that. I interpret in as Anchor will get the same increase as the police.

As for money, Leiper has always been clear that we need higher taxes to catch-up on long standing issues, unlike Mr. Mark Below Inflation Tax Increases Sutcliffe.

[Richard Eade]

While I like the intent behind Saravanamuttoo’s claim that he is an economist, ergo, he will be able to find lots of money being mis-spent by the City, I don’t find it credible. Every candidate has promised to find ‘efficiencies’, but, once in office, they find that the only way to reduce expenses is to defer needed maintenance or forego TRUE transit expenditures. I would expect that Saravanamuttoo will find the same thing as businessman O’Brien found; that others run the show and determine what is being spent where.

Of course, there are ways that the City could save money. As I pay my Municipal Taxes (with an extra 55¢ charge for using PAD), I am reminded of one way. The City could better use technology.

With a Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) agreement in place, the City needs to request a payment from your bank. The money is not automatically sent to the City – it must ask for the money. This, apparently (according to this CTV NEWS article from Oct. 15, 2025: https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/ci...t-payments-for-property-tax-water-bills/), costs the City 74¢ per transaction and requires “full-time support from seven staff members.” This is why the City is adding a 55¢ fee for every PAD transaction. The expected income from the fee is $820,000, per year.

However, according to a quote in the article, that amount does not cover the full cost of executing the PADs.

The fee would not fully cover the cost of the administration of the PAD plan; however, this would recover the difference between the cost of administering PAD versus all other electronic payment types.

The surcharge just covers the EXTRA cost of PADs. That extra cost is, presumably, the seven full-time staff members.

Since all of the PAD bank account data must be in a database, how about writing a small program that reads the account information, and the amount due, and sends in the request for payment – computer to computer – with, maybe, one support staff to handle exceptions.

Without doubt, the operation should be automated, but it likely isn’t as costly as other payment methods. Again, from the article, the City bemoans the cost pf PADs by providing this quote:

Despite being one of eight payment options provided to taxpayers, the plan administration uses almost 40 per cent of the full-time equivalents responsible for applying and recording all property tax and water utility payments.

Whoa. One-of-eight ways to pay, and it takes 40% of the resources? Outrageous!

But that would only be the case IF all 8 methods were used equally, or more equally. It turns out that out of 108,894 accounts, 86,734 use PAD. So, 80% of accounts use PAD, but that only takes 40% of the resources. Why is the City adding an extra charge on PAD users? Just automate the process, and it would cost less.

[rocketphish]

Alex Lawson is a City Hall outsider who wants to be Ottawa's new mayor
Lawson is a homebuilder and political newcomer, who says Ottawa's 2026 municipal election will be about quality of life in the city.

By Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 18, 2026 | Last updated 5 hours ago

Alex Lawson is hoping his role as a political outsider will resonate with voters as he frames his mayoral campaign around the place “where policy meets reality.”

Lawson grew up in Heron Gate and lived in neighbourhoods across the city — from Lowertown to Centretown to Kanata — as he built a career framing houses. He worked his way up from a labourer to owning his own company and now lives in Dunrobin with his family.

He bills himself as “a builder, not a politician” on his campaign website, where he’s posted his platforms for improving transit, housing, public safety and the cost of living.

“We’re talking about quality of life issues, we’re talking about getting you around the city, we’re talking about affordability, we’re talking about value for your tax dollars, we’re talking about feeling safe, being able to cross the street,” Lawson said in an interview.

“A lot of people want to say this is a transit election or it’s a homelessness election or it’s a housing election. It’s a quality of life election. And that’s why I’m stepping up.

“I haven’t been a politician. I’ve been a framer for 20 years, but also a business owner, a father. I know how to negotiate, I understand that deadlines matter, and, living in the places that I have in this city, I think I’ve got a different perspective on it all,” Lawson said. “I’ve walked a lot of different roads wearing a lot of different pairs of shoes, and I think it gives me a bit more of an understanding of what people are actually going through and what we need to do to address it.”

How he’d fix public transit

Lawson published a 12-point plan to fix transit with commitments from reinstating an express bus service during rush hour to reworking bus routes to a full independent review of OC Transpo’s management structure.

“It’s the beginning of a plan to fix OC Transpo,” Lawson said. “There’s going to be a lot of things that need to be looked at, but to think that it’s just going to be a funding issue, or plans like refunding transit fares if the bus doesn’t show up? I mean, if you’re late for work the fourth time because of OC Transpo and you’re losing your job, getting $4 back isn’t going to do much for you.”

Lawson brushed off a campaign pledge from rival Neil Saravanamuttoo that would offer fares at a “buck-a-ride,” saying the transit authority is already running a $52-million deficit.

“We need to look at more responsible management. We can’t just be pouring more water into a leaky bucket — and this is going to be the theme for a lot of things,” Lawson said.

“So, how do you figure out why this is happening? Talk to the people that are driving the buses. Talk to the people that are supervising the people driving the buses, talk to the managers, talk to the union heads. And that’s what I did … It’s been months of having great conversations, talking to people where policy meets reality, seeing where those gaps are, and what we can do to fill them in.”

Affordable housing about more than home prices

Lawson said he would explore “creative ways” to increase the city’s housing supply and to bring costs down.

“Nothing gets built if you don’t show up to do it, and nothing gets fixed if you ignore it,” he said. “We’re all focused on (how) it’s almost impossible for people to buy a house now. But where are the conversations about rent prices? Forget buying a house, let’s talk about renting a house, about getting out of your parents’ basement and having a place of your own.

“If rent is taking 85 per cent of your monthly income, and then a transit pass for a system that’s not showing up is taking up another chunk of it, then you end up having to go to the food banks (that are) are seeing record numbers of people and the Ottawa Mission is serving record-breaking numbers of meals,” he said.

“It’s not a popular opinion, but I don’t believe that government should get more involved in things, and I would normally say that government shouldn’t be involved in building houses. I do believe in smaller government,” Lawson said.

“But in a situation like we have now … once we give the private sector every opportunity to bring these prices down — whether it’s land availability, cutting red tape, cutting development charges, whatever it is — let’s give them all the tools at our disposal. If they still don’t do it in 12 months, we’re going to do it. We’re going to step in … we’re going to hire the people that know how to do it, to dig holes, pour foundations, or frame houses or put roofs on them. And then people are going to live in them and we’re going to charge what people can afford.”

Neighbourhood policing is key for public safety

Lawson said he’s in favour of expanding alternative response programs like ANCHOR and would better equip the Ottawa Police Service’s neighbourhood resource teams.

“We don’t need to send armed police officers to somebody that’s in a mental health crisis, necessarily, but we also do need to protect the people that are responding to that,” Lawson said. “It’s different now than it was in the ’90s and early 2000s where you knew (the neighbourhoods) where the problems were. It’s expanding everywhere. It’s a different game now. It’s not the same city it was.”

Lawson said he’s gone on police ride-alongs in the ByWard Market and spoken with Chief Eric Stubbs about the challenges facing police in a changing city.

“Neighbourhood policing and having officers that know their areas is definitely the right move, but we also need to equip them better,” Lawson said. “I’m not saying to pour money into a leaky bucket again, but let’s actually talk with them and see what we need.”

Relations with federal and provincial governments

A strong relationship “built on mutual respect” with the federal and provincial governments is “absolutely essential for the well-being of Ottawa residents,” Lawson said.

“I won’t be waiting for bailouts as the current mayor seems to have been doing. I will be proactively presenting solid ideas to both levels of government that they are excited to invest in. With affordability, health care, transportation and infrastructure, the list of areas where we need to work together creatively easily becomes a mile long.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/alex-lawson-plan-election-2026

[J.OT13]

That Mark Sutcliffe article. It's a doozey.

Many of the problems plaguing OC Transpo — from the aging fleet of diesel buses to the mechanical issue that forced 41 train cars out of service in January — had roots in decisions made by previous councils, he said.

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Sutcliffe touted the purchase of 500 new buses, including a fleet of hybrid electric buses, and launching LRT Lines 2 and 4.

Sutcliffe said there has been positive progress with onboarding more e-buses and gradual improvements to bus reliability metrics, along with plans to extend the rail line east to Orléans and the eventual west extension.

Everything that's wrong with the system is the previous Council's fault, but also, all the positive things coming that he listed are the previous Council's work, but that he won't give them credit for that.

“Instead of this being a project that costs taxpayers $420 million it’s going to cost them about $130 million but we’re going to get $420 million worth of value,” he said. “Most of the time when we build a community centre, a library, a swimming pool, a skating rink, 100 per cent of the cost is covered by taxpayers. In this case, it’s only about 25 per cent that taxpayers have to chip in, and the rest comes from other sources.”

Again using magic math. Don't count the parking garage. Best possible scenario for revenue. And it's as if the contingency won't add cost to the overall project.

“the lowest property tax increases of any major city in the country.”

Not a flex when we have a major infrastructure deficit.

“I want to continue collaborating with my colleagues on Ottawa City Council and keep the city moving forward,” Sutcliffe said. “I don’t want to go back to the way things were four years ago, where we were dealing with issues like the convoy and fights over free public transit, and those kinds of things. We’ve got a good thing going right now around the council table with some very strong colleagues, and we’re working together in the best interest of the community, and I want to keep going with that.”

Council is just about as divided as it was under Watson. Urban vs Rural/Suburban with Plante somehow being a wild card. The convoy was not Council's fault, but it dragged on for a month because of the police's incompetence, the same police he has continually propped-up. There were never arguments about free transit; it's something he invented to discredit McKenney. Only Menard has brought that up (and still does occasionally).

Sutcliffe has been a disaster. Watson left him a bunch of big projects ready to go; the Market plan, Stage 3, a decent Lansdowne 2.0 plan. Sutcliffe waited until his final year to present a watered-down, car-centric Market plan for double the price and a value engineered Lansdowne plan for double the price. He essentially killed Stage 3 with the help of Ford, which I can understand considering the issues, but that was an opportunity to get shovels in the ground for BRT projects that could provide redundancy.

I'll give him some credit for helping stabilize the paramedic situation and housing, but even then, the paramedic service did a lot of heavy lifting by working with the hospitals, and the housing gains are largely thanks to the Federal Government.

[J.OT13]

The Sutcliffe article sounds like "I'm doing a great job and I'll continue to do so" while Leiper article seems to offer up more ideas of the "how" things could get done.

Neil's "Open Books 100 Days" sounds like his "The Thousand". He likes flashy things. I think he'd find that opening the books to the public is legally challenging.

His "buck a ride", another slogan that sounds better than reality, would be disastrous for the City's books.

Lawson, the rural, ultra conservative McMansion builder is the worse of the bunch. Let's start with his pledge to reinstate rush hour express buses. That would take a whole lot more buses, and it would undermine the investment in rail. And it sounds like he wants to cut the transit budget, so how the heck would he bring back express buses?

“It’s not a popular opinion, but I don’t believe that government should get more involved in things, and I would normally say that government shouldn’t be involved in building houses. I do believe in smaller government,” Lawson said.

“But in a situation like we have now … once we give the private sector every opportunity to bring these prices down — whether it’s land availability, cutting red tape, cutting development charges, whatever it is — let’s give them all the tools at our disposal. If they still don’t do it in 12 months, we’re going to do it. We’re going to step in … we’re going to hire the people that know how to do it, to dig holes, pour foundations, or frame houses or put roofs on them. And then people are going to live in them and we’re going to charge what people can afford.”

So you think the private sector will build affordable housing out of the goodness of their hearts? Even if you remove all fees and taxes, housing prices won't go down so dramatically that those living on the street will be able to afford them. And then you've created another problem by removing a major revenue source from the City.

Anyone who thinks they can run the City (or any Government) like a business is missing the point. Job #1 of Government is serving its citizens. Job #1 of a business is profits, often at the expense of quality and service. Those are not compatible goals.

[Truenorth00]

Ugggh. Ottawa looks like it's going to go through its Rob Ford era with the current crop of mayoral offerings. Sutcliffe is definitely worse for Ottawa than John Tory was for Toronto. And at least Tory used to ride the subway. Anybody ever seen Sutcliffe use OC Transpo outside of a photo op?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Ugggh. Ottawa looks like it's going to go through its Rob Ford era with the current crop of mayoral offerings. Sutcliffe is definitely worse for Ottawa than John Tory was for Toronto. And at least Tory used to ride the subway. Anybody ever seen Sutcliffe use OC Transpo outside of a photo op?

I'm don't see how any of the candidates are like Rob Ford.

[Richard Eade]

I agree that ‘Let it Slide’ Sutcliffe has been a disaster as a Mayor. If he had taken even a quarter of the energy that he devoted to complaining that ‘The World Is Not Fair To Ottawa’, and put it into actually developing an improved vision for the city, and begun working toward that, we would be far better off. You are right, J.OT13, that ‘Think Smaller’ Sutcliffe actually squandered virtually every project that was left in the planning stage by ‘Approve It – But Spend No Money On It’ Watson.

You dismiss Lawson as a fringe candidate, but I’m not sure that he will be ignored by many people. I think that people are (rightly) fed up with watching the city and the services that the municipal government provides degrade toward the point of uselessness. People are getting fed up with the state of the roads, and the public transit system. They are feeling less safe when they are out and about in the city – that is, if their SUV has not been stolen out of their driveway.

People are looking for someone who has a plan to ‘fix’ the problems. By claiming that the Express Buses will be brought back, Lawson is tapping into the ‘It used to be MUCH better; so we should just return to the past’ sentiment. It doesn’t matter if it would actually be possible to bring back Express Buses – which it isn’t. People don’t necessarily want to hear the truth; they want to hear that someone is going to make changes. They want to hear of things that sound as if they might be an improvement over the dysfunctional status quo.

This is what Rob Ford did. This is what Trump did. This is what Poilievre tried to do. They accentuate the current negatives and declare that they have a solution that is fundamentally different from what is happening. They claim that they are different and will, therefore, do things differently. What they claim that they will do doesn’t have to be realistic. It needs to be different, and, on the surface – without scratching beneath that surface – appear to be a solution. (And, as Saravanamuttoo has evidently noticed, it helps if the idea fits into a short, catchy-sounding, slogan; like ‘Buck a Ride’.)

All that said, I think that Ottawa’s voters are upset by what they are experiencing, but to conservative to want radical change. There will be votes for bigger change, but probably not more than 17%, split between Saravanamuttoo and Lawson. Leiper has name recognition, and is somewhat more progressive than Sutcliffe, but is still a politician, so he will get more urban votes. However, the ‘bike-hating’ suburbanites, who don’t drive ‘into the city’, and those wanting to buy a cheap McMansion in the suburbs, will vote for ‘Status Quo’ Sutcliffe.

I expect that the outcome of the election will be something like Sutcliffe 42%; Leiper 38%; Saravanamuttoo 10%; Lawson 7%; Other 3%. And the voter turnout will be quite low, at about 40%. (For reference, 2022 election results: Sutcliffe 51.37%; McKenney 37.88%; Chiarelli 5.08%; Kadri 2.38%. With a voter turnout of 43.79%.)

I fear that we can count on continued erosion of the city for the next term of Council. If the consumer price index flags inflation as 3%, then we will get a tax increase of 2%-2.5% - under the banner of ‘Keeping Things Affordable’. It won’t matter that the City’s inflation rate is well above the consumer’s rate. And, of course, ‘Silver Bullet’ Sutcliffe will promise to find a bunch more ‘efficiencies’ (that somehow got missed during his first term) and be counting on upper levels of government to gladly swoop in and cover any operating deficit.