2022 Ottawa Municipal Election

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by phil235

I really don’t think there is any serious debate that low density SFH areas are much more costly over the long run. The City of Ottawa itself has done multiple studies that demonstrate the extent of the subsidy.

One of these days, the city that has done such studies might consider acting upon the findings, even!

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

One of these days, the city that has done such studies might consider acting upon the findings, even!

Now you are talking crazy.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

One of these days, the city that has done such studies might consider acting upon the findings, even!

We study all sorts of things. Politics and inertia both prevent any change. Poor kids/parents buying milk in social housing are subsidizing rich dairy farmers.

If people want to live in suburbs I agree the design should be what we focus on. Our very low carbon taxes and the like aren't going to turn us European even in one generation and sooner or later there will be a rebellion against even what we have done so far. Federally probably with suburban voters in 2025.

[J.OT13]

Mark Sutcliffe
@_MarkSutcliffe

Catherine McKenney and I made a deal that we would go to @BeaverTails together after the election. We met today and had a wonderful chat and a delicious treat. Thanks to all the residents who stopped to say hello and wish us both well.


3:21 PM · Nov 10, 2022
·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/_marksutcliffe/status/1590801745168723968?s=61&t=mXKlFVHMGuvaon55uOE9Gw

[J.OT13]

Citizen coverage of the new Councillors. 4 part series.

Fresh faces at city hall: Ariel Troster, Marty Carr and Stephanie Plante will represent Ottawa's downtown wards

Ottawa elected 11 new city councillors on Monday night. We spoke with all of them about their ambitions for their first terms

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Oct 29, 2022


Composite image of Ariel Troster, Stéphanie Plante and Marty Carr PHOTO BY POSTMEDIA

Ottawa elected 11 new city councillors on Monday night, who bring a range of life and professional experience and perspectives to municipal government. We spoke with all of them about their ambitions for their first terms, starting with councillors elected in the downtown wards.

Ariel Troster, Somerset

With her background in activism, commitment to LGBTQ issues and interest in social causes such as housing and overdose prevention, you might see similarities between Somerset Ward’s new councillor, Ariel Troster, and its last one, Catherine McKenney.

Troster sees it too.

“I think that’s accurate,” said Troster, acknowledging the trail blazed for her by McKenney and the ward’s previous councillor, Diane Holmes.

“We have an incredible history and tradition of progressive leadership in Somerset ward.”

Troster announced her bid for council in January, shortly after McKenney said they would be running for mayor. A few weeks later, the “Freedom convoy” arrived in Ottawa.

Like McKenney, Troster was front and centre during the convoy advocating for Centretown residents, who were the collateral damage of the anti-government protest.

“I felt a responsibility to elevate the voices in my neighbourhood,” Troster said. “There was a lot of focus on Parliament and Wellington Street and I was getting hundreds of messages from people trapped in their apartments. I wanted to boost their voices to make sure that that part of the experience wasn’t gaslighted.”

Troster first moved to Ottawa to work for Maude Barlow and the Council of Canadians in 2004. Later she worked in communications with the Public Service Alliance of Canada and an LGBTQ refugee resettlement group called Rainbow Haven. More recently, Troster worked for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

“I worked on a lot of the files that we’ll be working on as a city: affordable housing, getting money into the permanent transit fund, climate change adaptations,” she said.

“I got a bird’s eye view of those issues at a national level and it was interesting to see how some of those programs were working or not working. Then I was knocking on doors and learning firsthand about some of the things our city is doing well and some of the things we’re doing not so well.

“It’s a real crash course on the human issues in our neighbourhoods,” she said. “The issues are really personal. People are worried about whether they’ll be able to afford their rent. They’re worried about whether they can find a place to live. They worry about whether the bus will get them to their job. It was a humbling experience.”

Troster hopes that a new mayor and the 11 new councillors will be a chance to heal some of the rifts that hampered the last council. She hopes the city will see a new “holistic” approach to municipal politics.

“I am encouraged, because I think the dynamic might be a bit different,” she said.

Stéphanie Plante, Rideau-Vanier

Stéphanie Plante says her first foray into municipal politics was an effort to rename a Sandy Hill park in honour of Inuit artist Annie Pootogook in 2021.

“It’s what made me motivated to run,” Plante said. “If I can get something like this done during a pandemic when everything was supposed to be on hold, then I thought that maybe I would be good at this job.”

Plante’s narrow, 323-vote margin made the race in Rideau-Vanier one of the closest in the city, but not the closes the ward has ever seen. Her predecessor, Mathieu Fleury, won his first election by just 81 votes.

Fleury is one of Plante’s political idols. Another is Herb Gray, the Liberal MP and former deputy prime minister from Windsor, Ont., who served 40 years in Parliament. Plante, a native of Tecumseh on Windsor’s outskirts, worked for Gray.

“I really learned from him the ‘retail’ side of politics — that everyday constituent issues are really important no matter what your position is. Mr. Gray would stand in front of Zehr’s (as Loblaws is known in Southwestern Ontario) once a month and hand out flyers and talk to people. Even when he was deputy prime minister. That’s really important and I want to keep that spirit alive.”

At the same time, Gray and Fleury also taught Plante that there are also big, seemingly intractable issues that can’t be ignored. Like truck traffic on King Edward Avenue or the issues of homelessness and the epidemic of opioid overdoses.

Plante hopes to improve the city’s addiction services outside the downtown core. Opioids are a city-wide problem, she said, not just a downtown one.

“I don’t think people should have to travel downtown to get addictions support,” she said. “If you had cancer and you were told the only place to get cancer services, whether you were in Cumberland or Barrhaven or Kanata, was in Rideau-Vanier ward, you’d think that was weird. We want to spread the supports around.”

Another issue she wants to tackle is the shortage of family doctors. She’d like to develop a plan where the city provides “medical infrastructure” for family doctors as is done in some other cities.

“They provide family doctors with an office that’s accessible, has parking, they even staff them with nurses. The doctors don’t have to deal with billing and property management and snow removal — they can just focus on being family doctors,” she said.

“We have so many empty buildings and empty spaces. I don’t have this costed out. I don’t have charts and graphs and a powerpoint, I’m not there yet, but that’s what I’m hoping to get off the ground.”

Marty Carr, Alta Vista

The steep learning curve for new city councillor Marty Carr began in the parking lot. After driving to City Hall Wednesday morning to sign her oath of office and pick up her orientation package, she lost her car.

“I never drive and I’ll be honest with you, I must have spent 45 minutes in that underground parkade,” Carr said, with a laugh. “I finally had to go outside and retrace the route that I drove in.”

Carr is the new councillor for Alta Vista ward, replacing incumbent Jean Cloutier, who decided not to run again. A former director in a small federal government department, Carr has spent five years on the board of the Alta Vista Community Association, the last 3 1/2 as president.

“It was that experience, working with the city staff, working with the councillor, working with organizations on input into municipal issues that grew my passion for municipal politics over what I was doing working in the federal government,” she said.

“Planning, development, affordable housing, climate change…. You have an opportunity to make a difference around the table and that’s what appealed to me.”

One of Ottawa’s original post-war suburbs, Alta Vista is a transitional ward that borders the downtown to the east and north and sprawling suburbs to the south and west. That brings challenges.

“I live in the community of Alta Vista, but there are a lot of different communities in the ward,” she said. “When I was knocking on doors I heard loud and clear from people that they want to feel more included, that they always feel left out and that their interests weren’t being represented. Definitely one of the challenges will be to work with all those communities so they don’t feel the ward is just Alta Vista itself.”

Like many wards, Alta Vista is dealing with development and intensification. It’s also home to the massive and controversial Heron Gate redevelopment. The ward’s infrastructure will have to keep pace, she said.

“We were built as a car-centric suburb so we’ve got recreational facilities, but they’re aging. You see other suburbs come along and get brand-new facilities. But that’s definitely not our reality in Alta Vista.”

And then there’s just the practical challenges ahead for a new councillor, learning the ropes and getting an office up and running.

“The big thing is you spend seven months knocking on doors and you hear everyone’s concerns. And you realize, there’s no way I can address all of them. Many of them are contradictory. Someone says, ‘I want more traffic-calming measures!’ And someone else says, ‘I want traffic-calming measures removed!’ Not everyone is going to be happy with what happens.”

Nevertheless, Carr is hopeful that the coming term of council won’t be as rancorous as the last term.

“I may be overly optimistic, but I believe that each councillor who was elected — and the ones who are returning — know that we don’t have any choice except to be collaborative for the next four years. I’m very hopeful that every single councillor feels the same way.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...te-will-represent-ottawas-downtown-wards

[J.OT13]

Citizen coverage of the new Councillors. 4 part series.

Fresh faces at city hall: Jessica Bradley, Laine Johnson and Sean Devine are set to represent Ottawa's inner suburbs

Ottawa elected 11 new city councillors on Monday night. We spoke with all of them about their ambitions for their first terms

Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen
Oct 29, 2022



Ottawa elected 11 new city councillors on Monday night, who bring a range of life and professional experience and perspectives to municipal government. We spoke with all of them about their ambitions for their first terms, starting with councillors elected in the downtown wards.

Jessica Bradley, Gloucester-Southgate

Jessica Bradley won’t be moving far when she replaces veteran Gloucester-Southgate councillor Diane Deans at the council table — she has worked as part of Deans’ team for a decade.

Raised in Brantford, Ont., Bradley studied political science at Western University and travelled to Moscow to study Russian during her third year.

After she graduated, Bradley returned home to work in Brantford’s tiny two-person elections office. A relationship prompted her move to Ottawa, where she got a job working at Statistics Canada job in field operations management during the 2011 census.

After that, Bradley joined Deans’ office team, starting out as a frontline worker answering questions and complaints about issues like potholes and garbage that is not picked up.

“I like to solve problems. It was a great way to learn about the city,” said Bradley. When Deans’ executive assistant left in 2014, Bradley moved to a policy advisor role.

Deans was removed from her role as chair of the Police Services Board by city council on Feb. 16, in the middle of the “Freedom convoy” protests. The public backlash against the police response to the protest had caused Chief Peter Sloly to resign and when Deans hired an interim chief, Matt Torigian, without a competition, she was ousted during a tense, emotional council meeting.

“There was a moment when I thought ‘this is cutthroat,'” said Bradley. But then, I thought ‘I love this city and you have to step up to change that.'”

Deans, who had previously said she was planning to run for mayor, announced in June that she would not return to city council. Bradley, who had no political experience aside from being on student council, decided she wanted her name on the ballot.

“There were so many things that were not finished, and that I wanted to be part of,” she said. She won Deans’ endorsement and on Monday night, she was elected with more than 42 per cent of the vote.

Bradley considers Deans, who won eight elections, to be a mentor. “Diane really had the courage of her convictions. You need to be the best advocate for your community, even when it’s not popular,” said Bradley. “After 10 years of it, it rubs off on you.”

Bradley says she’s single and has never had a nine-to-five job, so she plans to be accessible. “A lot of people get into politics thinking they will be dealing with city-wide issues. But 80 per cent is serving the community. The work is in the trenches.”

She doesn’t live in Gloucester-Southgate yet. She bought a condo outside the ward in 2019 and isn’t ready to move, but would like to live in the ward at some point. “I have chosen to live here, and I have chosen to stay. It’s a big small town. You can’t go anywhere without seeing someone you know.”

Laine Johnson, College

Laine Johnson started knocking on doors even before she declared her intention to run for councillor in College ward in March.

“Every one of those interactions was an opportunity to connect with someone,” she said. “I worked hard knocking on doors. I get energy from meeting other people. I get a boost.”

That effort paid off. In a crowded field of five candidates, Johnson won more than 52 per cent of the vote on Monday.

The past four years have been a difficult time for College ward.

Beleaguered incumbent Rick Chiarelli was the subject of two investigations by the city’s integrity commissioner in response to allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour. His salary was suspended, which he challenged in court. He had heart surgery in December 2019 and suffered from complications.

Chiarelli was frequently absent from council, drawing complaints from community groups and residents who felt they had lost their voice at city hall. It wasn’t clear until the very last day for would-be councillors to declare their candidacy, but he did not seek re-election.

With her long and energetic campaign, which attracted 170 volunteers, Johnson wanted to show she can go the distance.

Johnson was born in Ottawa and grew up in a co-op housing enclave near the Hog’s Back Bridge. She went to the Canterbury High School, where she specialized in drama, did an undergraduate degree in psychology at Carleton University, where she later completed a master’s degree in philanthropy and non-profit leadership.

That led to a career in the non-profit sector, focused on the municipal level.

Johnson was a leader with Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, a non-profit housing organization founded in 1974 that develops and maintains affordable housing as well as Synapcity, a non-profit dedicated to civic engagement and the Ottawa Community Land Trust, which stewards land assets, allowing non-profits to use the value of the land as an asset to produce affordable housing.

She has been making connections with people at the municipal level throughout her career, and says these connections will be valuable in her new role as councillor.

“These skills I have in bringing people together, I thought it would be the missing puzzle in College ward,” said Johnson. “That invitation to participate and have connection would heal a lot of mistrust.”

Preserving the tree canopy, public health and housing are among the concerns she has heard at the door, along with the need for safe streets.

“We’re very car-friendly. We don’t have a lot of infrastructure for people who want to walk. We need to understand that this transition is upon us. Safety concerns are very real.

Johnson and her husband are the parents of two preschoolers, 3 1/2 and 20 months old.

“I can hardly wait until my children start sleeping through the night,” said Johnson. “Then I will really be on fire.”

Sean Devine, Knoxdale-Merivale

One thing to know about Knoxdale-Merivale’s new councillor Sean Devine: He’s an actor who has specialized in playing tough, bad guys in a career that spanned three decades.

In The Whole Nine Yards, the 2000 Matthew Perry-Bruce Wiillis crime comedy about a Quebec dentist and a contract killer, Devine played an RCMP investigator. In the 2017 CTV miniseries The Disappearance, he was a kidnapper.

“Most people are theatre kids until they get a real job. I was a theatre kid until I was 45,” said Devine, who has worked in the arts and culture sector as a festival producer, federal arts funding officer and playwright.

His most successful play was about politics — Daisy, a drama about a 1964 attack ad that was credited with helping Lyndon Johnson win the U.S. presidential election. The television ad featured a little girl in a meadow, haltingly counting the petals she plucks off a daisy before a male voice counts down to nuclear destruction.

A native of Montreal, Devine lived in Vancouver for 10 years before he and his wife decided to move east in 2014 so they could be closer to family and live in a more affordable city.

The couple contemplated Montreal, Hamilton, Halifax and Ottawa, drawing up an extensive list of pros and cons. They asked young people if they wanted to stay in Ottawa.

“We didn’t want to live in a city where kids didn’t want to stay,” said Devine. He and his wife, a teacher, are now the parents of four children between the ages of six and 24.

The couple wanted to live in the suburbs and looked at houses in all corners of the city before settling in Trend Arlington. Devine got involved with the community association, eventually serving as president for four years.

Devine’s political values “have always been in the general direction of the NDP.” He ran as an NDP candidate in the federal riding of Nepean in 2015 and 2021. He came in third in 2015 with 8.2 per cent of the vote and third again in 2021 with 16.4 per cent.

“In hindsight, I could not have won those races,” he said. “This is the first election I even stood a chance of winning.”

Devine had been contemplating running for city council for about two years and had planned to run against the ward’s current councillor, Keith Egli, even if Egli was still running.

Egli announced in April he didn’t plan to run, but seven candidates signed up for the race. Devine won just over 39 per cent of the vote.

Devine said his two federal campaigns taught him valuable lessons, including the importance of organization and making a connection at the door. By training or by nature, actors are good at public speaking, thinking on their feet and connecting.

“When I approach the door, I have a conversation knowing I have positions, values, thoughts. But I will be talking to someone who has different values and positions,” he said.

“I always want people to know I’m trying to make a connection.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...e-set-to-represent-ottawas-inner-suburbs

[J.OT13]

Citizen coverage of the new Councillors. 4 part series.

Fresh faces at city hall: Meet Wilson Lo, David Hill and Steve Desroches, who will represent Ottawa’s southern suburbs

With council turnover, it's a new chapter for Barrhaven and Riverside South-Findlay Creek

Taylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen
Oct 29, 2022


Composite image of Wilson Lo, David Hill and Steve Desroches

Ottawa elected 11 new city councillors on Monday night, who bring a range of life and professional experience and perspectives to municipal government. We spoke with all of them about their ambitions for their first terms, starting with councillors elected in the downtown wards.

A Canadian Forces veteran, an OC Transpo employee and a city councillor turned public servant turned city councillor once again are the new faces of Ottawa’s southern suburbs at the council table.

David Hill, Wilson Lo and Steve Desroches all say they’re looking forward to working with everyone on council, but foresee particularly close collaboration with their ward neighbours.

There’s plenty of overlap on what they ran on, from better and safer roads to improved local transit to recreation and parks investment that would further complete their suburban communities. But each also brings a unique background to the council table, informing their interests and how they’ll do the job.

Wilson Lo, Barrhaven East

In his campaign become the first-ever city councillor for Barrhaven East, Wilson Lo set himself a goal of personally visiting every single house in the ward. He said made it to the last one — number 17,006 — the day before polls closed.

Lo said he was “running to represent the community … not running to represent myself. So it was important to me that I made sure that my platform was also supplemented by the feedback of my neighbours.”

An OC Transpo customer communications officer and operator before that, Lo is now taking the buses he used to drive to his new job at city hall.

His election win brings opportunity few others have to try to make the improvements he’d like to see to the transit system. But the 30-year-old councillor-elect is also carrying with him a desire to be accessible and candid with the community.

“If it’s bad news, honestly half the time I know from experience that the resident appreciates the fact that it’s been communicated, even if it’s not in their favour.”

Comprehensive transit and transportation plans were cornerstones of Lo’s campaign platform, with planks such as transforming the Fallowfield park-and-ride through transit-oriented mixed-used development and improving the plan for Stage 3 LRT before the city signs any contract.

Unsurprisingly, the opportunity to sit on the transit commission and transportation committee are both on his council wish list.

Lo sees himself starting on the vision he presented at the doors with efforts to redirect existing transit resources in service of a “more local-friendly” network. There are express commuter buses running now with just a handful of people, he noted, while other residents who rely on the system go underserved.

“Any business will tell you that is an incredible waste of money and manpower.”

Much of what Wilson has committed himself to working on are items of wider significance for the south end of the city, such as reopening the shelved discussion to build a new police campus near Prince of Wales and Strandherd and fast-tracking the Greenbank Road realignment.

His platform also identified specific opportunities to collaborate with whomever was elected in neighbouring Barrhaven West. One example? Bringing a fenced, off-leash dog park to their suburban community.

Lo said he established good relations with all four candidates who ran in Barrhaven’s other ward during the campaign, knowing there would be issues that crossed their ward boundaries and called for collaboration.

David Hill, Barrhaven West

After 25 years as an infantry officer, David Hill saw an opportunity to pursue a different kind of service in Barrhaven council veteran Jan Harder’s retirement announcement.

In deploying to the council table, having won the job of representing Barrhaven West, “I want to be a pragmatic, objective-oriented team player,” said Hill. “I want to deconstruct these complex problems that we have in the city. I want to see what best way we can work the resources and our policies in order to make the best decisions possible for the residents today and tomorrow.”

The road to Hill’s election win did include a minor scandal, when he was captured on a porch camera removing a competitor’s flyer from a resident’s front door and replacing it with his own. He apologized at the time for the “lapse in judgement” and said Thursday it was both a “really low experience” and one that drove home the public nature of the job. “If you do something dumb … it’s going to be, you know, on Twitter that night with a lot of views,” said Hill.

“I think the reason that ultimately people voted for me is because they recognized it was a mistake and that my platform was genuine and they were willing to give me that second chance.”

The marching orders he’s tasked himself with involve pushing for infrastructure that will serve his fast-growing ward (a new highway on-ramp at Barnsdale Road, for instance), better transit and community safety, and a vow to “fight to keep taxes low” with inflation hurting household budgets.

As for council appointments, Hill said he’s not discounting anything, but he could see himself as a good fit on the police services board and community and protective services committee, given his military background, while transportation is another area of particular interest.

Executing on his campaign platform starts with a plan to “sponge up as much experience and knowledge as I can from the city staff,” said Hill, and getting read-up on legislation to better understand the city hall system. That way, he’s prepared to push for progress on his priorities for Barrhaven in upcoming windows of opportunity like the city budget and transportation master plan.

While they don’t always have to agree on everything, said Hill, he wants to work closely with Lo (they already had lunch plans for Friday) and was heartened to see his colleague’s campaign was also about talking to residents as much as possible. “And I think there’s not a lot of … daylight between his and my visions of where we need to go.”

Steve Desroches, Riverside South-Findlay Creek

Walking into city hall for a meeting with the clerk after Monday’s election, “I was kind of teary-eyed coming into the building,” said Steve Desroches. “Part nostalgia, part excitement to be part of the governance of this city and to help build a world-class city.”

Returning to represent Riverside South-Findlay Creek after two terms away, Desroches finds himself in the unique position of being both a new face to most of his council colleagues and the only one left with time on council that dates back to the Larry O’Brien years.

First elected in 2006, at the age of 36, he’s used to being the one turning to longer-serving councillors for perspective. “Because oftentimes, as the saying goes, past is prologue.”

Now 53, and returning from eight years in the federal public service, Desroches said he’s hopeful he can bring some of the history he relied on others for as an early-career councillor, as well as some healthy skepticism born of experience to evaluating proposals that come before the council table.

Whether it’s about the return value for money spent on something or bases covered before a project moves ahead, “I may be a bit tougher in terms of some of the questions that I’m going to ask,” said Desroches.

He pointed to the transportation committee as one he’d be interested in serving on, given the pressures in the south Ottawa and particularly in the Bank Street area. Part of the plan he ran on was a proposal to develop south Bank Street into a gateway for the national capital, as were an economic development plan for southeast Ottawa, getting moving on a new recreation facility for the ward and attention to environmental concerns like tree planting and green space preservation.

While he advocates for balancing local priorities with consideration for the well-being of the city as a whole, Desroches sees an example of what cross-ward collaboration can achieve in the east end of the city, where councillors have formed something like an eastern caucus to tackle certain issues.

“I think there’s a real opportunity here to make sure that the southern part of our city is collaborating, working well together, especially on infrastructure that touches us all.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...new-chapter-for-ottawas-southern-suburbs

[J.OT13]

Citizen coverage of the new Councillors. 4 part series.

Fresh faces at city hall: Meet David Brown and Clarke Kelly, who will represent rural Ottawa wards

New councillors in Rideau-Jock and West Carleton-March bring political experience and rural priorities

[BTaylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen
Oct 29, 2022[/B]



Ottawa elected 11 new city councillors on Monday night, who bring a range of life and professional experience and perspectives to municipal government. We spoke with all of them about their ambitions for their first terms, starting with councillors elected in the downtown wards.

There are two new councillors-elect across the four wards that comprise rural Ottawa; both men in their 30s with behind-the-scenes experience in the political world and lifelong residency in the communities that just voted them in.

While David Brown and Clarke Kelly are coming to the council table with priorities that reflect life in the furthest-flung of Ottawa wards, they say they want to work constructively with all of their new colleagues, regardless of their proximity to the Greenbelt.

David Brown, Rideau-Jock

David Brown promised Rideau-Jock residents that if he was elected, he wouldn’t change the cellphone number he gave out on the campaign trail.

Now, the 31-year-old councillor-to-be is preparing to take calls from his new constituents, who span 11 different villages and rural communities in the sprawling south Ottawa ward he won a resounding mandate to represent.

Incumbent Scott Moffatt is bowing out after three terms and Brown was able to secure the victory that evaded him when he went from Moffatt staffer to challenger in 2018. Brown easily defeated his handful of opponents with 67 per cent of the ballots cast, and links his hefty vote count to the resonance with residents of the ideas he ran with.

Roads were the hot button issue at the doors, Brown said, and he expects budget funding for them is the first initiative he’ll be focused on at city hall. It’s a priority he sees shared by the new mayor, Mark Sutcliffe, who pledged a $100 million investment over four years to upgrade roads, sidewalks and improve maintenance. And it’s a concern shared across all four rural wards, according to Brown, who wants to work with these colleagues so they can bring a collective voice to get progress on the issue.

“Roads are the number one public asset used by residents in rural Ottawa because we don’t have direct access to many of the other programmes and services offered by the city.”

“Everyone has their own particular road they want fixed. But that’s the general message: ‘Just fix the road.'”

His campaign material also called for an “independent budget watchdog” to scrutinize city spending, argued that the next term of council should involve figuring out an alternative to its current waste disposal practice at the Trail Road dump with waste-to-energy technology available to cities, and pointing to the state of the city’s finances, outlined his perspective that the next council needs to “respect taxpayers and admit it can’t do everything.”

Having worked for Moffatt and Carol Anne Meehan municipally as well as then-PC MPP Jeremy Roberts and Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre before that, Brown has plenty of experience watching politicians in action. Site visits are one thing he’s engaged in throughout his decade in politics (before that, he worked in dairy farming), and that he plans to make part of his own practice as a councillor, as well as regular meetings with the heads of all the ward’s community associations as a sort of “ward council.”

“I want residents to be able to call me directly. I want them to have that feeling of access and that feeling of openness,” said Brown. “At the end of the day, local government is the one that is closest to residents. And so I’m hoping to be able to embody that kind of style as we move forward into the next term of council.”

Clarke Kelly, West Carleton-March

West Carleton-March has always been home for Clarke Kelly. Today, he and his young family live just one door down from the house where he grew up.

He believes his deep roots in the community, as well as a strong campaign ground game, are what allowed him to end up at the top of a crowded field to replace the ward’s long-time councillor Eli El-Chantiry.

While Kelly’s professional background includes work for Liberal MPs Karen McCrimmon (now retired) and Ryan Turnbull, he says his campaign’s supporters and volunteers ranged the entire political spectrum –– and that’s a point of pride.

Kelly, 35, tendered his resignation on Parliament Hill in June when he decided to run for council, and not just to focus on a full-time campaign, but also to “sever any ties that I had with partisan politics.”

One reason he was attracted to municipal politics is because there isn’t a party system, said Kelly, who noticed in recent years that political discourse at other levels of government, in Canada and south of the border, “hasn’t been very productive or respectful” and wants to strive for consensus in his council work.

The needs in rural wards are different than those in urban wards, he noted, but he rejects the idea that a divide is inevitable between those representing each type.

“What one city councillor wants to achieve for their constituents might not be the same as what I want to achieve for mine. And that’s not a problem. It’s just a conversation that we’re going to have to have and there’s going to have to be some give and take and some compromise. And that’s how you build consensus, and I think that’s how you build the best policies possible for the greatest number of people.”

Kelly said he made only a few campaign promises because he wanted to be realistic with residents about his capacity to deliver as a single member on council, but those pledges he did make included to fight for “development practices that are less destructive to natural habitats,” to work with colleagues on the issue of ambulances not being available when they’re needed (known as “level zero”) and to push for a review of the city’s procurement process “to ensure that residents and taxpayers receive the greatest value for their money.”

He also wants to establish constituency and agriculture advisory councils and to hold town halls to discuss projects and issues specific to different communities in the ward, which spans more than 700 square kilometres.

“A year from now, if more people in West Carleton feel like their voice matters or that they’ve had an influence or at least some sort of say in the process in how the city creates its policies and moves forward from here on out, then I think I’ll definitely have achieved one of my major goals.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...y-who-will-represent-ottawas-rural-wards

[J.OT13]

Here's quote from Stephanie Plante that might hit close to home for Gatineau residents:

“If you had cancer and you were told the only place to get cancer services, whether you were in Cumberland or Barrhaven or Kanata, was in Rideau-Vanier ward, you’d think that was weird. We want to spread the supports around.”

I believe that's the case in Gatineau; treatment is only available at the Gatineau Hospital, correct? Pretty sure it's the same for the maternity ward, only at the Gatineau Hospital. Mind boggling that someone in Aylmer or Buckingham has to get all the way to Gatineau to deliver a baby. Might as well just go to Ottawa, I guess.

[rocketphish]

Swearing-in ceremony kicks off new chapter of municipal politics
The inauguration ceremony marks the new mayor’s first opportunity to establish the tone of his reign, and councillors are expecting a less flashy shindig than some of the lavish affairs of the past.

Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen
Nov 14, 2022 • 15 hours ago • 4 minute read

A new season of municipal politics starts Tuesday when mayor-elect Mark Sutcliffe and the 24 newly elected councillors are sworn in during a ceremony at Ottawa City Hall.

The inauguration ceremony marks the new mayor’s first opportunity to establish the tone of his reign, and councillors are expecting a less flashy shindig than some of the lavish affairs of the past.

Instead of throwing a swanky formal dinner party in a grand hall, Tuesday’s event takes place at council chambers in the morning, and will be followed by a luncheon, to be served in the spacious city hall room known as Jean Pigott Place. And if you tune in to the livestream, you won’t see the politicians in ceremonial fur-trimmed robes, but in modern business attire.

“I know Mayor Sutcliffe campaigned on being better with the city’s money so that’s probably why he wants to show a more toned-down event with less pageantry,” said Wilson Lo, councillor for the city’s 24th and newest ward, Barrhaven East. “My understanding is that the only real pageantry will be Mark Sutcliffe’s chain of office.”

At 30, Lo is the youngest member of council and one of 11 new faces at the table, all of whom participated in last week’s boot camp for new councillors. Each councillor is permitted to invite up to six people to the swearing-in ceremony; Lo will bring his wife, Amelia Howell, and parents-in-law, longtime Barrhaven residents who are keen to attend an official function at city hall despite their pandemic concerns.

“They’re very excited,” Lo said, “so much so that they’re willing to attend an indoor event. And we’ve never been to anything like this before so it’s certainly going to be a new experience.”

Across town, Catherine Kitts (Ward 19 Cumberland) is one of the incumbents who have never experienced an in-person group inauguration. Elected in a byelection during the pandemic, her first swearing-in ceremony, held in October 2020, was little more than a brief formality before a virtual council meeting.

“I can’t imagine having a more bizarre start to my career as a city councillor,” said Kitts, who’s 34. “It was still full pandemic and so none of my friends or family were there and my fellow councillors were joining virtually. It was very minimal staff, just Mayor Watson and the city solicitor, and they didn’t even want me to stay in chambers for the meeting. They took a recess so I could go back up to my office. That’s how strict the COVID protocols were at that time.”

This time, her husband, Shane Bakker, parents and three staffers will be in the audience, and she’s caught up in the buzz generated by the rookie councillors.

“There’s definitely a lot of excitement and anticipation, and I know they’re eager to get officially sworn in to start sinking their teeth into the role,” she said. “It does feel like there’s a generational change happening.”

At the other end of council’s demographic spectrum is Allan Hubley, the 64-year-old incumbent councillor for Ward 23 Kanata South. He and Tim Tierney (Ward 11 Beacon Hill-Cyrville) are now council’s elder statesmen, having represented residents since 2010, the year Watson, elected on a penny-pinching platform, famously served Tim Hortons coffee and doughnuts at the reception.

Although Hubley says he’s not big on pomp and pageantry, the swearing-in ceremony is a special event because family members can attend. On the eve of his fourth inauguration, he’s happy that it’s scheduled during the day so his granddaughter can be there (along with his wife, Wendy Barber, and their daughter), but he wonders how the little girl, Macara, now six, will react when she sees Sutcliffe with the chain of office.

“She always called Jim Watson her friend,” Hubley said with a laugh, “and he let her wear the chain one time, so she will be wondering what the new mayor is doing with her friend’s chain. Her mother is going to have to explain the concept of an election.”

His first order of business will be to move back into his city hall office after renovations to the building resulted in the addition of a 24th office for Lo. After the turmoil of the last four years, the veteran councillor says he’s looking forward to a fresh start.

“To me, the swearing-in signifies the start of something new, which I think council sorely needs right now,” Hubley said. “I hope this term is a peaceful one and a productive one, and people put more of an effort into getting along and becoming more productive. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work — for the taxpayers.”

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/swearing-in-ceremony-kicks-off-new-chapter-of-municipal-politics

[J.OT13]

Roger's TV conducted interviews of the new Councillors-elect. Six are up so far. See the list here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuU1suLgDIUKwAg-sAww6HdkEdImbfRCQ

[waterloowarrior]

Strong mayors will be able to propose and amend certain types of by-laws under the latest bill from the PC government if they are meeting a provincial priority. They will just need 1/3 of council support(!)

https://news.ontario.ca/en/backgrounder/1002482/better-municipal-governance-act-2022

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Strong mayors will be able to propose and amend certain types of by-laws under the latest bill from the PC government if they are meeting a provincial priority. They will just need 1/3 of council support(!)

https://news.ontario.ca/en/backgrounder/1002482/better-municipal-governance-act-2022

I would rephrase this.

The Mayor will be able to make decisions for the whole city as the only citywide elected and only a 2/3 majority of council will be able to block this.

[J.OT13]

I realized the other day that David Hill, who won in Barrhaven West, was the one who threw his rivals' pamphlets to the ground. That and his admiration for Jan Harder might be an indication of where he'll stand on Council.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/david-hill-taayo-simmonds-campaign-material-video-1.6614426

[J.OT13]

Where are they now.

CitySHAPES
@City_SHAPES

“Today, I am launching CitySHAPES – a new national nonprofit organization that will lead groundbreaking policy, advocacy, and community engagement work focused on building better cities.”
- Co-Founder @cmckenney



12:13 PM · Jan 19, 2023
96 Views[/I]

https://twitter.com/City_SHAPES/status/1616121778178514944?s=20&t=6yrwyLwX3paj37RuDJpPPg

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Where are they now.


https://twitter.com/City_SHAPES/status/1616121778178514944?s=20&t=6yrwyLwX3paj37RuDJpPPg

McKenney fighting to build better cities that's as laughable as thinking Adam Vaughan working for the UOT school of cities will result in good policy.

How about they try actually getting housing built and see how their ridiculous policy and regs cause issues for every type of housing.

Also, apt this announcement is on the same day that 4 stories got chopped from a dev in DT Ottawa due to the terrible centretown CDP/city zoning.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

McKenney fighting to build better cities that's as laughable as thinking Adam Vaughan working for the UOT school of cities will result in good policy.

How about they try actually getting housing built and see how their ridiculous policy and regs cause issues for every type of housing.

Also, apt this announcement is on the same day that 4 stories got chopped from a dev in DT Ottawa due to the terrible centretown CDP/city zoning.

Yes, because rubber stamping any and every project is the only path to good urbanism. Bike lanes, transit, walkability, social housing, social equity, usable green space; none of these matter.

You realize that we have thousands of approved residential units approved but not under construction, right? You realize that we have thousands of acres of underutilized land ripe for redevelopment? Demanding that existing zoning is respected, sometimes even allowing a bit more than current zoning, is not an evil plot to destroy the housing market.

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Yes, because rubber stamping any and every project is the only path to good urbanism. Bike lanes, transit, walkability, social housing, social equity, usable green space; none of these matter.

You realize that we have thousands of approved residential units approved but not under construction, right? You realize that we have thousands of acres of underutilized land ripe for redevelopment? Demanding that existing zoning is respected, sometimes even allowing a bit more than current zoning, is not an evil plot to destroy the housing market.

"Good" urbanism starts with the density required to support it, which is something neither yourself nor McKenney seems to grasp, along with how the housing market functions or really any market for that matter.

Secondly, fighting for IZ isn't fighting for social/community housing, it's a fight to offload the bill of those things onto those that can't afford it. New home owners and immigrants to the city. (Totally progressive)

Third, you've never seem to grasp that zoning isn't written in stone and that just because zoning states "x" doesn't make it correct or that there are regs upon regs that make redevelopment of existing lots near impossible (setbacks, IZ, parking min, park fees, dev fees and etc) without adding more units to spread the cost over. The site I mentioned is in the core of a 1+million city and it along with many other lots in centretown are zoned only to allowed 4 stories without going through a costly, obtuse and lengthy consultation.

As for land ripe for redevelopment your correct we do, hectares upon hectares of Greenfield land in Ottawa and even more beyond. But let's see if we can try to allow housing to get built inside the Urban areas first before we force suburban sprawl through bad planning.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

"Good" urbanism starts with the density required to support it, which is something neither yourself nor McKenney seems to grasp, along with how the housing market functions or really any market for that matter.

Secondly, fighting for IZ isn't fighting for social/community housing, it's a fight to offload the bill of those things onto those that can't afford it. New home owners and immigrants to the city. (Totally progressive)

Third, you've never seem to grasp that zoning isn't written in stone and that just because zoning states "x" doesn't make it correct or that there are regs upon regs that make redevelopment of existing lots near impossible (setbacks, IZ, parking min, park fees, dev fees and etc) without adding more units to spread the cost over. The site I mentioned is in the core of a 1+million city and it along with many other lots in centretown are zoned only to allowed 4 stories without going through a costly, obtuse and lengthy consultation.

As for land ripe for redevelopment your correct we do, hectares upon hectares of Greenfield land in Ottawa and even more beyond. But let's see if we can try to allow housing to get built inside the Urban areas first before we force suburban sprawl through bad planning.

You can achieve density without building mid and high rises exclusively. Look at Montreal. Centretown is already one of the densest areas of the City (and for what it's worth, I preferred the original proposal for the project you are referring too).

McKenney was the only serious Mayoral candidate who campaigned against inclusionary zoning (R1).

I was referring to Tunney's, Confederation Heights, National Research Council , CFB Rockliffe, La Fonderie... not suburban sprawl.

[rocketphish]

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe's campaign raised $300K from just 250 supporters who donated the max
Mark Sutcliffe and Catherine McKenney both raised more than $500K, but spent it in different ways

Joanne Chianello · CBC News
Posted: Apr 01, 2023 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

The top two contenders for mayor in last fall's municipal election spent about the same amount on their campaigns, but they raised the money in very different ways.

Approximately 3,100 individuals donated to second-place Catherine McKenney, while contributors to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe — who won the election with more than half the votes cast — totalled about 750.

Yet, as individuals, Sutcliffe's supporters gave far more. Almost 250 gave $1,200, the maximum allowed, for a total of $300,000. Put another way, Sutcliffe raised more than half of his $537,824 in contributions from just 250 people.

McKenney's campaign actually brought in $5,000 more than Sutcliffe's, but only about 60 people gave the $1,200 max. McKenney's much longer tally of donations listed many contributions in the $100 and $200 range.

All candidates in last fall's election had to file an audited financial statement of their contributions of $100 or more and campaign spending by 2 p.m. on Friday. There is a 30-day grace period, but candidates must pay a $500 late filing fee.

In many ways, the donor lists for both the top two candidates reflect their campaigns: Sutcliffe's drew from the business and political establishment, while McKenney ran a more grassroots race that election results — and campaign contributions — suggest appealed more to voters in the core of the city.

Not only do Sutcliffe and McKenney appear to have gone about soliciting money in different ways, they also spent their money differently.

The mayor shelled out $282,792 on advertising and $30,510 on brochures, while his key competitor spent $176,001 on ads and $18,277 on brochures.

But McKenney way outspent their opponent when it came to paying campaign workers. While Sutcliffe's campaign paid out $46,094 on salaries, honoraria and professional fees, McKenney spent a whopping $128,322. The former Somerset ward councillor also spent $20,000 more on office expenses than Sutcliffe.

Sutcliffe and McKenney shelled out similar amounts on signs, $40,035 and $37,188 respectively.

Sutcliffe also raised about $100,000 through five fundraisers – all called "Meet Mark Sutcliffe" – including one on Sept. 22, where 31 people paid $1,200 for tickets. That single event raised $37,200.

McKenney's campaign appears to have held no fundraisers.

Neither Sutcliffe nor McKenney appears to have accepted donations from developers. Whereas McKenney released their donations at several points during the campaign — and pushed Sutcliffe to do the same — the mayor decided to wait until Friday to release his.

Both candidates had pledged not to accept donations from development industry leaders and their families. While any individual is allowed to donate to a municipal campaign candidate in Ontario, developer donations can be controversial because city council decisions on planning can be worth millions to their companies.

Sutcliffe's donation list was full of business people from across the city, which isn't a surprise given his background as an entrepreneur, one of the founders of the Ottawa Business Journal and former chair of the Ottawa Board of Trade.

Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, Hexo founders Sebastien St-Louis and Adam Miron, restaurateurs John Borsten and Stephen Beckta, car dealership owner Jeff Mierins and Jeff York of Farm Boy were among those who donated $1.200.

There were also recognizable names from the political and lobbying worlds on Sutcliffe's donation list.

Four members of the Liberal McGuinty family – including former premier Dalton – and Conservative strategists Michelle Coates-Mather, Kory Teneycke and Chris Froggatt also contributed the maximum amount.

Former mayor Jim Watson gave Sutcliffe's campaign $500.

Interestingly, Miron of Hexo fame also donated $1,200 to McKenney. Most of their max-contributors were less recognizable names than Sutcliffe's.

The former Somerset ward councillor received support from many like-minded politicians, including Ottawa Centre NDP MPP Joel Harden ($200), Kitchissippi ward Coun. Jeff Leiper ($103.30), Capital ward Shawn Menard ($250), Diane Holmes ($600), and Alex Cullen ($900).

Former environment minister Catherine McKenna, who endorsed McKenney during the campaign, donated $250.

With files from Kate Porter

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sutcliffe-mckenney-campaign-donations-1.6797844