September 27, 2010
In election news, the Citizen’s Randall Denley reports that two councillors (the only two so far?) have released platforms that offer a broad and comprehensive approach to city issues. These are David Chernushenko in Capital Ward and Jennifer Robitaille in Orléans. Read about their very different ideas for the city here. On the mayoral front, the front runners in this election are taking their private conversations to the public. All I can say is that I’m really looking forward to our October 5 debate where real issues will be discussed.
September 20, 2010
“Political Promises” is a series by the Ottawa Sun’s Susan Sherring featuring some of the leading candidates’ bait to attract voters. Check out Doucet’s, O’Brien’s, Watson’s, Haydon’s and views on taxes, transit, leadership and more. The qBik Creative Blog, on the other hand, is comparing how the candidate’s are using social media. They’ve so far published posts on O’Brien, Watson and Doucet.
I often love reading The Bulldog’s rants. The Citizen’s Ken Gray is smart and well-informed (maybe he should run for mayor one day?). Most recently, he wrote about losing an ally against the LRT when Jim Watson declared he was favour of the project. Whoever ends up winning this election, I’m curious to see how close to reality Ken Gray’s assessment of the future of the LRT is.
September 12, 2010
This past week marked the true launch of the 2010 Ottawa mayoralty race. Candidates Watson, Doucet and O’Brien began unveiling their platforms. Jim Watson promised fiscal responsibility and Clive Doucet promised to put off plans for an LRT tunnel as the campaign for mayor of Ottawa on Tuesday. O’Brien said if re-elected, he would work to establish an arms-length transit commission like Toronto’s to take the business of running the service off council’s plate as well as personally propose a tax-freeze budget if the city agrees to a number of cost-cutting measures.
Subsequently, O’Brien formally asked for councillors to endorse his budgetary plan. Most recently, Watson released what he calls a comprehensive integrity platform that would include, among other things, a council code of conduct.
In other noteworthy elections news, Andrew Haydon, now 77, was a late entry in the race for mayor. Haydon announced his candidacy the last possible day a candidate could declare. He’ll be running on an anti-LRT platform, proposing to bolster bus rapid transit. Also of note, Zaphod’s owner Eugene Haslam will be running for council in Capital ward.
Do you remember “Our Ottawa”, the group that was set up to endorse new blood in at city council? They’ve thus far only endorsed three candidates, Bob Brocklebank in Capital ward, Bruce Webster in Rideau-Golbourn and Sheila Perry in Rideau-Rockliffe, but are planning to endorse more candidates between now and October 25.
September 7, 2010
Back in April, we had reported about the Open Data Hackfest. The event was a success and the city got behind the idea of making more data available and creating useful apps. Now, the city expects to launch an open data contest in September, offering $50,000 in prizes to people who create applications designed for mobile devices, computers, websites and other software platforms.
Last Wednesday, Rideau-Rockcliffe councillor Jacques Legendre presented a 10-point motion in front of the city’s transportation committee aimed at making Ottawa a more cycle-friendly city. About 60% of the proposal was approved by the committee…not failure but not success either for councillor Legendre. View the committees meeting minutes, which includes the 10-point proposal, here.
August 30, 2010
Several mayoral candidates were out and about and participating in a number of pride events this weekend. While Alex Cullen seemed to be enjoying himself, he’s on record as seriously considering his position in the mayoral race. Money woes have made it hard for Mr. Cullen to launch a solid campaign. Cullen hopes to raise $100,000 plus in an early September fundraiser to keep his campaign alive.
August 23, 2010
Sad news for an eventual Concert Hall, good news for the Arts Court. City council has ok’d the transfer of $12 million that had been set aside for an eventual Concert Hall to renovate the Arts Court and move the Ottawa Art Gallery to Lansdowne Park. While those pushing for a new Concert Hall were obviously disappointed, some councillors like Diane Deane admitted is the city “shouldn’t be sitting on money in the bank when we have cultural priorities and we have cultural money to spend.”
Over the next weeks, Randall Denley has promised to profile some of the better new candidates in this fall’s election – a great idea. His first profile is of someone Denley obviously has in high regard: Ugandan born Lily Obina, who’s running against Councillor Diane Deans in Gloucester-Southgate.
August 16, 2010
If elected, Jim Watson is considering a borough system to ease the conflict continually simmering between urban and rural areas. Watson says: “Amalgamation has been an arranged marriage, and bumpy over last decade. If there are some things we can do to make the decision-making and process of governing more amenable to the people of rural Ottawa, we should keep an open mind.” Is he on to something or is he “rurally wrong” as The Citizen’s Ken Gray believes?
August 9, 2010
We’re getting closer and closer to the October municipal elections and Apartment613 is working on something big (more on that later). The Citizen’s Joanne Chianello has written an article on who’s running for mayor and why. Will it help you make up your mind on October 25th?
As a number of news outlets reported last week, construction along Slater St. created havoc for a number of transit users who, in the end, preferred walking rather than staying stuck in traffic… Will this reflect badly on Bay Councillor and chairman of the transit committee, Alex Cullen or on mayor Larry O’Brien. Will the other incumbents be able to capitalize on this faux pas? Is this proof we ultimately need a downtown tunnel?
August 3, 2010
The City of Ottawa is planning to evaluate one of the more contentious outcomes of last year’s transit strike, as it looks for some help to audit the new OC Transpo scheduling system.
July 12, 2010
There’s now enough mayoral candidates to field a soccer team with a couple of spares to boot. Clive Doucet, councillor for Capital Ward, is the latest entrant to the race, bringing the total number of candidates up to 14. The long serving councillor has often acted as a bit of a gadfly up at city hall, most recently for his opposition of the Landsdowne project. It is expected that his entry will split the left of center vote, although given that mayoral candidate and fellow leftist councillor Alex Cullen was only polling at 16% this May, there may not be much to share.
July 5, 2010
As we reported last week, city council voted 15-9 in favor of the Lansdowne redevelopment. Clive Doucet wants to bring the process to court, others just want to move forward. Councillor Diane Deans, who voted against the plan last Monday, said she thinks “unfortunately, there’s a divided community left in the wake of this decision.” But she added that now that council has made a decision, people need to move on.
