2026 Ottawa Municipal Election

[urbanforest]

Not to drag the discussion off-topic, but am I the only one who thinks a Bank Street subway is an absurd proposition?

The Glebe is far too low density to warrant the immense cost of a subway, and the same is even more true for everything that lies south of the Glebe. The case in Centretown is a bit stronger but I still think the demand isn't there.

Besides the fact that having to schlep deep underground to move around isn't a good experience and only adds time to your trip.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by urbanforest

Not to drag the discussion off-topic, but am I the only one who thinks a Bank Street subway is an absurd proposition?

Nah. There's more of us. You get shouted down here though if you say it.

Rest assured, no government is paying billions to build a subway just a few kilometres away a surface rail like. Ottawa isn't Tokyo.

[rocketphish]

Sutcliffe to make campaign pledge for $95 monthly adult transit passes
Promise part of a broader transit package as incumbent becomes 4th mayoral candidate to release plan

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News
Posted: Aug 17, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Mark Sutcliffe will make the first major policy announcement of his re-election bid on Monday, releasing a transit platform that includes a pledge to cut the cost of OC Transpo's adult monthly pass by $43.50.

It marks a shift for a mayor who had previously warned that even a fare freeze could starve the system of funds, and who repeatedly argued that passengers care more about reliability than price.

Under his proposal, the price of an adult transit pass would fall from $138.50 to $95 a month, though discounted passes for seniors and low-income people would remain unchanged.

CBC had obtained details about a transit campaign announcement coming on Monday and then asked Sutcliffe for an interview to confirm and discuss the idea. He said he's hoping it will push more people to give transit a try for their regular commute.

"It's about rewarding our best customers for their patience," he said. "It's about welcoming people back to transit and giving them a reason to come back and making it attractive for them to do so."

He said the reduction would cost about $8 million to $10 million annually, though that's only after accounting for the boost in ridership his campaign team says is likely to follow. Without that, they say, the overall cost would be about $15 million to $17 million per year.

The money would come from savings Sutcliffe expects from the promised LRT upload to Metrolinx.

<more>

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/su...5-monthly-adult-transit-passes-9.7307855

[Uhuniau]

Are the Underpants Gnomes part of this $95-pass policy? Because I don't see how it works without the gnomes and the underpants.

[Richard Eade]

Some math:

Current cost of a monthly pass $138.50.
Predicted cost to discount passes to $95 is $8M-$10M – so I’ll use the $10M
Customer saving per pass is $43.50, for each of 12 months
Thus, an estimated 19,000 monthly passes will get the discount.
Total monthly ridership from pass-holders (assuming 40 rides/month) is about 760,000.
Given an average of 6.1 million rides/month, pass-rides account for 12.5%; or 1-in-8 rides.

That number might seem shocking – that only about 1 on 8 rides is currently paid for with a monthly pass – but with a large number of people working less than 5 days a week in an out-of-home office, it is hard for them to justify buying a monthly pass. Well, a monthly pass that is priced by assuming that people will make 34, or more, trips per month – which represents a 15% discount from 40 trips. Even taking transit to work 4 days a week would run so close to that 34-trip-break-even (4-days x 2-trips/day x 4-weeks = 32) that I expect that many would not buy a pass.

OC Transpo has been looking into creating a pass that is more tailored to hybrid workers. WAY BACK in early September of 2023, OC Transpo asked the Transit Committee for the go-ahead to implement such a fare structure.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/hybrid-work-ottawa-oc-transpo-fare-pass-1.6958416
Apparently, nothing moved ahead.

So, now the Mayor is jumping on the band wagon and promising a lower price for a monthly transit pass – FOR 1 YEAR ONLY. If the Mayor’s proposed price offered was a 15% discount (as the current pass price is supposed to be), then a pass based on an assumed 4-day weekly commute would be $111. Based on a 3-day in-office week, the price would be $83. The Mayor’s chosen price of $95 falls about mid-point; or about 3.5 days a week in the office.

Just a note about ridership being ‘stuck’ at about 70% of pre-CoViD-19 ridership: If a large portion of transit ridership was only using transit for 3-of-5 (or 60%) of the rides they used to take, it should be no surprise that overall ridership was down and not rebounding further. With the move to 4 days per week in the office, 80% of the previous trips should be back (assuming few permanent switches away from transit).

As for the Mayor’s ‘pledge’, the saved money from an uploaded LRT (IF – and I think that it is a BIG ‘IF’ – that happens) would be better spent on transit infrastructure. Take that $85M/y and put it into the Baseline BRT, and Carling Bus Lanes, and any other transit improvement that he has been sitting on because he has been waiting for someone else to pay for it.

OFF-TOPIC: If the Baseline BRT and Carling Bus Lanes ever happen, during the digging, drop LARGE culverts under the length of the roads to act as Stormwater storage – similar to the CSST – then gradually process that (contaminated) water through the R.O.Pickard Environmental Centre.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

As for the Mayor’s ‘pledge’, the saved money from an uploaded LRT (IF – and I think that it is a BIG ‘IF’ – that happens) would be better spent on transit infrastructure. Take that $85M/y and put it into the Baseline BRT, and Carling Bus Lanes, and any other transit improvement that he has been sitting on because he has been waiting for someone else to pay for it.

Am I on crazy pills, or is that not what the proponents of uploading were suggesting at the time they first proposed it?

[Uhuniau]

Huh. As of (right now), this is what the Sutcliffe campaign site has to say about uploading. Bolding is original; my underlining.

https://marksutcliffe.ca/action-plans/lrt


Uploading LRT
You've probably heard in the news that the provincial government promised to upload Ottawa's LRT. But what does the upload mean? And more importantly, what does it mean for you? Uploading the LRT is by far the single best way to fix public transit in Ottawa, and protect taxpayers. Here's why.

First, it's about fairness.
Today, Ottawa taxpayers pay more than half, 55% of the cost of building light rail. In Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, and Brampton,local taxpayers pay only about 5% The upload fixes that imbalance and gives us back the extra money we invested. That's fairness.

Second, it delivers a multi-billion dollar dividend.
The upload will remove a $4 billion burden on Ottawa taxpayers. That's about $85 million every year that can be reinvested in better transit. Meaning: expanded service, more routes, more frequency, more reliability.

Third, it reduces financial risk.
Based on the decisions made in previous terms of council the LRT has cost Ottawa taxpayers billions of dollars with cost overruns, delays and legal settlements The upload shifts that financial risk to the province.

Fourth, it helps fix LRT faster.
Through Metrolinx, the province brings scale, and leverage, and experience. That means problems get solved faster, and more effectively. What doesn't change? OC Transpo will still operate the system. Local decisions stay local. What does change? Ottawa's LRT system becomes more reliable and we can finally move forward with phase three: expanding to Kanata, Stittsville, and Barrhaven.

Uploading LRT is the best way to fix transit in Ottawa. It's a great deal for the people of Ottawa.

[rocketphish]

‘Losing is the new winning’: Sutcliffe holds larger lead despite support drop
Homebuilder Alex Lawson has climbed into second place in Ottawa’s mayoral race behind Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, while Jeff Leiper’s support continues to slide. The survey also found transit becoming less of a voter priority as concerns over crime and traffic grow.

Sydney Ko, iPolitics
Published July 21st, 2026 at 5:12pm

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s support has slipped over the past four months, but his grip on Ottawa’s mayoral race has only strengthened as his challengers divide the opposition vote, according to a new poll.

Commissioned by Ottawa Compass and iPolitics, Liaison Strategies surveyed a random sample of 1,000 Ottawa residents from July 17 to July 19, 2026. For the total sample, the margin of error is plus and minus 3.09 percentage points.

Liaison Strategies Principal David Valentin said Sutcliffe’s declining vote share masks a race that’s becoming increasingly favourable for the incumbent.

“The big winner is Mark Sutcliffe, who went from having a very narrow lead to having a much larger lead, even though his own support dropped,” David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies said in an interview with iPolitics. “Losing is the new winning.”

Among decided voters, Sutcliffe led with 36 per cent support. Homebuilder Alex Lawson at 26 per cent, double the support since May, followed by City Councillor Jeff Leiper at 25 per cent.

Economist Neil Saravanamuttoo also saw a significant climb from last month’s eight per cent to 11 per cent.

Although Sutcliffe’s support has fallen from 46 per cent in April to 36 per cent, Valentin said the mayor has strengthened his position because his closest challengers have failed to consolidate support.

“We’re seeing Leiper continuing to go down, and we’re seeing Lawson continuing to go up,” Valentin said.

Valentin said Leiper’s declining support raises questions about whether the councillor’s more cautious campaign strategy is resonating with voters. He argued that while campaigns often rely on sharp contrasts to gain attention, Leiper is running a more restrained race, while Saravanamuttoo has largely avoided becoming a target for rival campaign as his support climbed.

Aside from Sutcliffe’s lead, Valentin also pointed to Lawson, who first polled at 14 per cent in May, appears to be extending beyond his original base.

Undecided voters rate has also gone down since last month from 37 per cent to 34 per cent.

While the ballot numbers tell one story, the mayor’s personal ratings may also suggest he has a firmer political this month.

This month’s polling also showed slight increase in Sutcliffe’s approval rating from 41 per cent to 45 per cent.

The poll also found more residents believe Ottawa is headed in the right direction than last month, another sign of improving sentiment toward the incumbent despite his lower ballot support.

Valentin said one of the more notable findings was the changing lists of priorities for Ottawa voters.

Transit fell as a top concern, dropping from 18 per cent in June to 11 per cent in July, while concern over crime more than doubled from seven to 15 per cent. Traffic also climbed from 13 to 17 per cent.

He added that while some of the month-to-month movement could reflect differences in the survey sample, the rise in traffic concerns also aligns with more residents returning to the office.

https://www.ipolitics.ca/2026/07/21/ottawa-mayoral-race-polling-liaison-strategies-sutcliffe-lead/

[rocketphish]

Can any of our mayoral candidates talk like a normal person?
Forget how well each candidate speaks English or French. What Ottawa voters want is real talk, not talking points.

By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen
Published Aug 17, 2026 | Last updated 5 hours ago

A recent story in the Citizen reviewed the French abilities of the four main contenders for mayor of Ottawa.

Incumbent Mark Sutcliffe, as well as challengers Jeff Leiper and Neil Saravanamuttoo, rate their French anywhere from workable to very comfortable, while Alex Lawson has the honesty to say his French is high-school-and-regrets. But hey, if he wins, he’ll make learning it a priority. Fine.

In a city where we rank bilingual public servants with letter codes, I want to focus on politicians’ third language: Normal.

Funnily enough, the most fluent speaker of Normal in this race is the unilingual anglo. One recent Lawson video, filmed on Bank Street, is about making sure kids don’t have to count needles on their way home. It pierces the screen it’s so clear. No framework. No four-point plan. No journey. It’s just something everyone with working eyes has seen, and said out loud.

Lawson is very good at putting his finger precisely on problems. What he doesn’t yet have is a thorough or credible plan to fix any of them. He’s fluent in diagnostics but still at the Duolingo stage when it comes to solutions. Yet it’s working surprisingly well: one poll puts him second among decided voters, a single point ahead of Leiper. Not bad for a guy who started the year at 13 per cent.

The other three, meanwhile, speak flawless Marketing Material. Years of message discipline have optimized their sentences until very little human survives contact with the microphone. Maybe that worked in past campaigns, but it does not meet the moment. People want real talk now, not talking points. So here, free of charge, are my pointers and translation services.

Sutcliffe: If the priority is keeping our tax bill at its lowest, he should say so, with the price tag attached. He should not say “we must continue to manage your money carefully, find savings and efficiencies, and invest in what matters most,” a sentence that’s been focus-grouped into surrender. We all know transit and roads (to pick just two) are in sorry shape, and that we’re not investing nearly enough to keep the infrastructure we already own from crumbling. “Every dollar matters” is especially hollow in a year when we found $26 million more for police, a five per cent hike to the cops’ share of the tax bill. Did you get a five per cent raise this year? In Normal, “low taxes at all costs” is a sentence that ends with “and here is what I will cut, and here is the maintenance I will defer.” Finish the sentence or retire the slogan.

Leiper: “A city that works” is simple enough. Normal-adjacent, even. The problem is the speaker. Because the question in our minds is: “But Jeff, why couldn’t you make the city work during the 12 years you spent at City Hall?” There is an answer; he could show us the votes he lost, the decisions he’d reverse tomorrow. But it’s a point that has to be made clearly, and often. Right now he’s the insider partly responsible for what’s broken, asking to be trusted as the outsider who’ll fix it, and his 12-point slide in the polls since April is the sound of that message not finding a receptive audience.

Saravanamuttoo speaks excellent Normal… for 45 seconds at a time. His videos are short, sharp and human. Then he arrives at a town hall, reverts to his native Economist, and the room loses him somewhere in the second subordinate clause. The pointer is almost insultingly simple: talk like your videos. If the message doesn’t fit in one, it isn’t ready for prime time yet.

We rate our mayoral candidates on their English and their French, as we should. But this campaign’s real exam is in Normal, and so far the only native speaker is the guy without a plan. That fact should terrify the other three into learning the language fast.


Brigitte Pellerin (they/them) is an Ottawa writer

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/mayoral-candidates-talk-normal

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Sutcliffe to make campaign pledge for $95 monthly adult transit passes
Promise part of a broader transit package as incumbent becomes 4th mayoral candidate to release plan

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News
Posted: Aug 17, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Mark Sutcliffe will make the first major policy announcement of his re-election bid on Monday, releasing a transit platform that includes a pledge to cut the cost of OC Transpo's adult monthly pass by $43.50.

It marks a shift for a mayor who had previously warned that even a fare freeze could starve the system of funds, and who repeatedly argued that passengers care more about reliability than price.

Under his proposal, the price of an adult transit pass would fall from $138.50 to $95 a month, though discounted passes for seniors and low-income people would remain unchanged.

CBC had obtained details about a transit campaign announcement coming on Monday and then asked Sutcliffe for an interview to confirm and discuss the idea. He said he's hoping it will push more people to give transit a try for their regular commute.

"It's about rewarding our best customers for their patience," he said. "It's about welcoming people back to transit and giving them a reason to come back and making it attractive for them to do so."

He said the reduction would cost about $8 million to $10 million annually, though that's only after accounting for the boost in ridership his campaign team says is likely to follow. Without that, they say, the overall cost would be about $15 million to $17 million per year.

The money would come from savings Sutcliffe expects from the promised LRT upload to Metrolinx.

Smart policy and politics. It rewards the heavy users and probaly gets a lot of the 3-4X a week folks to buy a pass and then use transit a bit more on weekends. It also undercuts the STO price which probablay steals back and even steals a few of their buyers.

Kind of outflanks Leiper on transit with it's easy to understand improvement for those that use and also those who support it from the sidelines.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Huh. As of (right now), this is what the Sutcliffe campaign site has to say about uploading. Bolding is original; my underlining.

https://marksutcliffe.ca/action-plans/lrt


Uploading LRT
You've probably heard in the news that the provincial government promised to upload Ottawa's LRT. But what does the upload mean? And more importantly, what does it mean for you? Uploading the LRT is by far the single best way to fix public transit in Ottawa, and protect taxpayers. Here's why.

First, it's about fairness.
Today, Ottawa taxpayers pay more than half, 55% of the cost of building light rail. In Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, and Brampton,local taxpayers pay only about 5% The upload fixes that imbalance and gives us back the extra money we invested. That's fairness.

Second, it delivers a multi-billion dollar dividend.
The upload will remove a $4 billion burden on Ottawa taxpayers. That's about $85 million every year that can be reinvested in better transit. Meaning: expanded service, more routes, more frequency, more reliability.

Third, it reduces financial risk.
Based on the decisions made in previous terms of council the LRT has cost Ottawa taxpayers billions of dollars with cost overruns, delays and legal settlements The upload shifts that financial risk to the province.

Fourth, it helps fix LRT faster.
Through Metrolinx, the province brings scale, and leverage, and experience. That means problems get solved faster, and more effectively. What doesn't change? OC Transpo will still operate the system. Local decisions stay local. What does change? Ottawa's LRT system becomes more reliable and we can finally move forward with phase three: expanding to Kanata, Stittsville, and Barrhaven.

Uploading LRT is the best way to fix transit in Ottawa. It's a great deal for the people of Ottawa.

"Uploading the LRT is by far the single best way to fix public transit in Ottawa" Not sure how the upload fixes anything. It's like saying "I bought a hammer, my roof is now fixed".

He's claiming that "The upload fixes that imbalance and gives us back the extra money we invested". Who says they are paying us back the extra money we invested?

I don't trust Sutcliffe to reinvest the $85 million back into transit. He'll likely just write it off as an "efficiency" and then spend that money to save a golf course in Kanata.

"Through Metrolinx, the province brings scale, and leverage, and experience." Metrolinx doesn't have the best track record when looking a the Crosstown delays and cost overruns or how slow Finch West has been (though that has improved).

And considering how Queen's Park has neglected Ottawa over the years and are slow to respond to anything we need, who's to say they'll invest in expanding the O-Train? And if OC needs to make changes on the fly like increased frequencies or hours of operations, will they be allowed to do it, or will they need permission from Metrolinx every time.

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Smart policy and politics. It rewards the heavy users and probaly gets a lot of the 3-4X a week folks to buy a pass and then use transit a bit more on weekends. It also undercuts the STO price which probablay steals back and even steals a few of their buyers.

Kind of outflanks Leiper on transit with it's easy to understand improvement for those that use and also those who support it from the sidelines.

With daily and monthly fare capping, very few people will bother buying a monthly pass. Don't get me wrong, fare capping, which OC Transpo implemented without the Mayor's involvement, is good, however fare capping means decreased monthly pass costs will not encourage people to buy monthly passes.

And why is he coming up with this now? He's spent four years arguing that the City is broke (unless OSEG needs money or there's a legal case to lose) and we can't afford to even freeze transit fares. He killed free transit for under 18s (just to bring it back a few years later, but only in summer).

I can't think of a single promise he kept from his 2022 campaign other than Lansdowne, watered down for double the price, and the police break room in the ByWard Market, which ended up outside the ByWard Market and hasn't produced any overall improvements.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

With daily and monthly fare capping, very few people will bother buying a monthly pass. Don't get me wrong, fare capping, which OC Transpo implemented without the Mayor's involvement, is good, however fare capping means decreased monthly pass costs will not encourage people to buy monthly passes.

And why is he coming up with this now? He's spent four years arguing that the City is broke (unless OSEG needs money or there's a legal case to lose) and we can't afford to even freeze transit fares. He killed free transit for under 18s (just to bring it back a few years later, but only in summer).

I can't think of a single promise he kept from his 2022 campaign other than Lansdowne, watered down for double the price, and the police break room in the ByWard Market, which ended up outside the ByWard Market and hasn't produced any overall improvements.

Yeah you point out the downside of fare capping. However a logical consumer will understand they can now use more transit as each trip is less expensive. However not having that pass at the beginning of the month does negate that as you decide to drive in the first week of the month rather than pay $8 plus when really the transit is only $4 if you do it every day plus some weekend trips. If you use STO you'll still get the pass and it being cheaper means you buy the OCTranspo version. Granted I am sure if people start getting on the bus in Gatineau suburbs with OCTranspo passes they will make some new rule that we won't match. (I've had many STO passes I barely used in QC and nobody cares though more recently you can't buy one downtown as I guess most are using virtual or reload options)

I'm not saying he's now the Transit candidate but if like many (most?) voters your number one issue is low taxes but you'd like to see transit (mostly so more people take it and get out of your way on the 417) and want some decent public areas he's probably your guy. You think Leiper puts more police in the Market? You think Lawson doesn't gut transit and close your underused suburban library? Idealogically Sutcliffe has a sweet spot in the 80% middle.