[Dado]

Time to usurp waterloo...

Running (13)
Running/may for Mayor (2)
May not run (2)
Not running (2)
Unknown (5)

Mayor Larry O-Brien
Councillor Georges Bédard
Councillor Michel Bellemare
Councillor Rainer Bloess
Councillor Glenn Brooks
Councillor Rick Chiarelli
Councillor Alex Cullen
Councillor Diane Deans
Councillor Steve Desroches
Councillor Clive Doucet
Councillor Eli El-Chantiry
Councillor Peggy Feltmate
Councillor Jan Harder
Councillor Diane Holmes
Councillor Peter Hume
Councillor Gord Hunter
Councillor Rob Jellett
Councillor Christine Leadman
Councillor Jacques Legendre
Councillor Maria McRae
Councillor Bob Monette
Councillor Shad Qadri
Councillor Doug Thompson
Councillor Marianne Wilkinson

[Proof Sheet]

Instead, Deans announced Monday she’ll be running again for councillor in Gloucester-Southgate.


I can't believe not a single reference to 'unfinished business' in this article. What is the world coming to.

Personally, I was kind of hoping she would run for Mayor and would crash out. At times she has come up with some pretty unreasonable demands on planning applications that make no sense but end up helping her save face. If I lived in her ward, I'd be hard pressed to vote for her.

[RTWAP]

I can't believe not a single reference to 'unfinished business' in this article. What is the world coming to.

Personally, I was kind of hoping she would run for Mayor and would crash out. At times she has come up with some pretty unreasonable demands on planning applications that make no sense but end up helping her save face. If I lived in her ward, I'd be hard pressed to vote for her.

As a counter point (not that I'm a fan) she has been more willing than some to ask hard questions. It seems like some councillors are happy to go with the flow and avoid embarrassing staff or applicants with difficult questions. In some ways she's got the mentality of an auditor.

[waterloowarrior]

Bob Brocklebank, executive member of the FCA and former President of the Glebe CA is running in Capital Ward,
http://www.brocklebank.ca/

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

When I met Peter Hume at the unveiling of Lansdowne yesterday, I told him how my family and I lamented that he decided not to run. :P

[Proof Sheet]

Bob Brocklebank, executive member of the FCA and former President of the Glebe CA is running in Capital Ward,
http://www.brocklebank.ca/

If Doucet decides not to run in Capital Ward, it wouldn't surprise me if another Community Association head were to run.

[waterloowarrior]

Councillor El-Chantiry is in
http://www.emckanata.ca/20100610/news/Eli+El-Chantiry+officially+running+for+city+council+again

[c_speed3108]

Looks like O'Brien might be setting up Lansdowne to be a kick-off (or a crowning moment)

Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien to declare re-election plans June 29


By Chris Cobb , The Otttawa Citizen June 14, 2010 4:02 PM

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+Mayor+Larry+Brien+declare+election+plans+June/3153143/story.html#ixzz0qrRaoY6s


OTTAWA — Mayor Larry O’Brien says he will announce June 29 whether he will seek re-election and defend his job against his main rival, former provincial cabinet minister Jim Watson.

O’Brien told the Citizen Monday he wants to hold off announcing his decision until after city council votes June 28 on the proposal to redevelop Lansdowne Park.

“I want to see it past the finishing line,” he said, adding he didn’t want news about his own political future to distract from the Lansdowne Park process.

If O’Brien enters the race at the end of the month, he will transform what has been a moribund race so far between Watson and Bay Councillor Alex Cullen. O’Brien would be seen as the leading candidate of the political right.

Election day is Oct. 25, but the campaign for mayor and city council really began when Cullen, who has been a councillor for 15 years, declared his intention to run on Jan. 4. Watson formally entered the race Feb. 1.

There are seven other declared mayoral candidates — Cesar Bello, Mike Maguire, Stanley Pioro, Sean Ryan, Jane Scharf, Samuel Wright and Charlie Taylor.

Many observers of municipal politics have said they expect O’Brien to run given his ready-made conservative constituency.

If the Lansdowne redevelopment plan is passed by council, he will also be able to claim a significant political victory, in addition to having secured funding for his ambitious light-rail project.

O’Brien also has the advantage of personal wealth, making a late run at re-election possible, since he wouldn’t have to raise the several hundred thousand dollars a run for mayor typically costs.

Some councillors have indicated they want a real race for the mayor’s chair in the fall.

West Carleton-March Councillor Eli El-Chantiry is one.

“We need another candidate in the mix,” El-Chantiry has said. “Right now, two-thirds of people, if the election were held today, would vote for Mr. Watson. So all that we’re doing is just turning it over to Mr. Watson. Is that what the community wants? I don’t think so.”

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+Mayor+Larry+Brien+declare+election+plans+June/3153143/story.html#ixzz0qrRKefTj

[Proof Sheet]

Time to usurp waterloo...

Running (13)
Running/may for Mayor (2)
May not run (2)
Not running (2)
Unknown (5)

Mayor Larry O-Brien
Councillor Georges Bédard
Councillor Michel Bellemare
Councillor Rainer Bloess
Councillor Glenn Brooks
Councillor Rick Chiarelli
Councillor Alex Cullen
Councillor Diane Deans
Councillor Steve Desroches
Councillor Clive Doucet
Councillor Eli El-Chantiry
Councillor Peggy Feltmate
Councillor Jan Harder
Councillor Diane Holmes
Councillor Peter Hume
Councillor Gord Hunter
Councillor Rob Jellett
Councillor Christine Leadman
Councillor Jacques Legendre
Councillor Maria McRae
Councillor Bob Monette
Councillor Shad Qadri
Councillor Doug Thompson
Councillor Marianne Wilkinson

Jacques Legendre won't be running again. A committed councillor, hard working, loyal to his constituants but can be very stubborn and often very suspicious of the development industry.

[Dado]

Running (13)
Running/may for Mayor (2)
May not run (2)
Not running (3)
Unknown (4)

Mayor Larry O-Brien
Councillor Georges Bédard
Councillor Michel Bellemare
Councillor Rainer Bloess
Councillor Glenn Brooks
Councillor Rick Chiarelli
Councillor Alex Cullen
Councillor Diane Deans
Councillor Steve Desroches
Councillor Clive Doucet
Councillor Eli El-Chantiry
Councillor Peggy Feltmate
Councillor Jan Harder
Councillor Diane Holmes
Councillor Peter Hume
Councillor Gord Hunter
Councillor Rob Jellett
Councillor Christine Leadman
Councillor Jacques Legendre
Councillor Maria McRae
Councillor Bob Monette
Councillor Shad Qadri
Councillor Doug Thompson
Councillor Marianne Wilkinson

In addition to the Legendre change, Eli El-Chantiry is also running.

[waterloowarrior]

Mayor Larry O’Brien will be seeking re-election this fall, with the official announcement tomorrow in front of 700 Sussex
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/official+Brien+again/3217932/story.html

[ac888yow]

He obviously expects the socialist/leftist vote to be split between Cullen and Watson, leaving the conservative vote in this traditionally conservative town mostly/all to himself. His strategy is sound, but it will be interesting to see if it pans out. The Watson war room is surely abuzz right now with discussions on how to reel him in toward the center.

O'Brien once suggested that he has a list of councillors he'd like to see gone/defeated. It will be interesting to see whether or not he names and shames them during the campaign.

Either way, this election has all the makings of being a very interesting one. It's no longer a runaway election for Watson, and more importantly:

- We will finally be rid of Cullen as he doesn't have a prayer
- We will hopefully be rid of Doucet as he is indicating he may not run

Let us get rid of those officials who are holding our city back, once and for all. The two names above are a good start.

[lrt's friend]

He obviously expects the socialist/leftist vote to be split between Cullen and Watson, leaving the conservative vote in this traditionally conservative town mostly/all to himself. His strategy is sound, but it will be interesting to see if it pans out. The Watson war room is surely abuzz right now with discussions on how to reel him in toward the center.

O'Brien once suggested that he has a list of councillors he'd like to see gone/defeated. It will be interesting to see whether or not he names and shames them during the campaign.

Either way, this election has all the makings of being a very interesting one. It's no longer a runaway election for Watson, and more importantly:

- We will finally be rid of Cullen as he doesn't have a prayer
- We will hopefully be rid of Doucet as he is indicating he may not run

Let us get rid of those officials who are holding our city back, once and for all. The two names above are a good start.

O'Brien was interviewed on CFRA and he will not name councillors to be defeated. Perhaps he is finally learning that he cannot put a wedge in City Council to that degree. He may need their support on certain issues in the future. CFRA nation is clearly his support base.

It was mentioned that Clive Doucet will assess his future when he vacations at his cottage over the next week. Contrary to previous comments, he has not made up his mind yet.

I do hope people remember all O'Brien's failures during his term of office. Don't let him off the hook too easily about 'zero means zero' and that horrible transit strike.

[adam-machiavelli]

Regardless of who is elected as mayor (and the rest of city council), I hope it becomes at truly progressive council that encourages responsible development that takes into account the needs and desires of existing and future residents above the 'almighty' dollar.

[Dado]

I started watching O'Brien's press conference on A Channel this morning. I say "started" because after 5 minutes of it I couldn't take it any more.

His speech was unpractised. He flubbed the opening statement of his announcement to run for mayor. At one point he expressed his interest in becoming leader of "this count. city" except of course "count.", as in "country", sounded like "cunt".

He started pleading to have the contest about "leadership". Apparently leadership is about progress. That's what our sage Mayor says. There was a recital of some lame joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee, which is bad enough, but he then went on to say that he "agreed with that". Great insight, there...

It was cringeworthy stuff and it just kept coming. That and its very vapidness. I had to turn it off; I couldn't bear to listen anymore.

It'll be interesting to see what footage the media uses because they basically don't have any of him not screwing up the announcement of the very thing he's running for. If either Cullen or Watson or an anti-O'Brien group wanted to make a negative attack ad or two, they could just piece together a few clips from that speech.

[Cre47]

I wouldn't be surprised if the ZMZ blog returns so slam his disastrous term. Perhaps City Holler as well will return to throw him flowers since that blog has being AWOL for a while too.

[waterloowarrior]

http://twitter.com/davidreevely/status/17871588069
davidreevely: Clive Doucet not running for re-election, but IS running for mayor. Says city is run by developers and he wants to change it.
3 minutes ago via TweetDeck

[waterloowarrior]

Also, Rob Jellett is in
http://www.emcorleans.ca/20100624/news/Rob+Jellett+files+for+re-election

Running for re-election on Council (14)
Running for Mayor (3)
Not running (3)
Unknown (4)

Mayor Larry O-Brien
Councillor Georges Bédard
Councillor Michel Bellemare
Councillor Rainer Bloess
Councillor Glenn Brooks
Councillor Rick Chiarelli
Councillor Alex Cullen
Councillor Diane Deans
Councillor Steve Desroches
Councillor Clive Doucet
Councillor Eli El-Chantiry
Councillor Peggy Feltmate
Councillor Jan Harder
Councillor Diane Holmes
Councillor Peter Hume
Councillor Gord Hunter
Councillor Rob Jellett
Councillor Christine Leadman
Councillor Jacques Legendre
Councillor Maria McRae
Councillor Bob Monette
Councillor Shad Qadri
Councillor Doug Thompson
Councillor Marianne Wilkinson

[matty14]

http://twitter.com/davidreevely/status/17871588069
davidreevely: Clive Doucet not running for re-election, but IS running for mayor. Says city is run by developers and he wants to change it.
3 minutes ago via TweetDeck

Please tell me this is a joke. I will literally pack my bags and leave this town I've called home for the past 23 years if he is elected mayor.

[Proof Sheet]

Clive Doucet not running for re-election, but IS running for mayor. Says city is run by developers and he wants to change it.


I have serious doubts that the City is run by developers...that is a real stretch. He is ticked off that the so called 'developers' got what they wanted at Landsdowne. He comes across as a sore loser. The net result of him putting his poetry book in the ring is that it could split that hard to define left wing vote and let the CFRA demographic slither up through the middle and win again.

I admire Doucet for his convictions but if he thinks he can change the corporate culture and the way of doing business at 110 Laurier he is a more astute man than I give him credit.

In all honesty his fanbase is the Glebe and Old Ottawa East and not much else. Most people in the rest of the City groan at the mention of his name.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Well, we can pretty much wave goodbye to Doucet and Cullen it seems. Comments like Doucet's are not going to win him much support. How can the city be run by developers? If it were, tall towers would actually get built and maybe things would happen at City Hall. As it stands, we have a council with it's collective head up its collective ass, the NCC and its stonewalling of most proposals, the meddling of federal officials such as John Baird, and dealing with the government of Ontario. This city is so poorly run, it's hard to imagine that developers who usually plan things out and get things built on time were actually running the show.

[adam-machiavelli]

Cullen and Doucet will split the progressive vote. One of them should wait until 2014. I suggest Cullen.

[reidjr]

I think cullen has a out side chance he may pick up alot of votes who knows.Clive not a chance the comments he made yesterday just hurt his chances even more.If he really wants to be a serious player in the mayor race he has to handle him self better and not be so anti devlopment and anti sports.I will say this with 14 so far in the race for mayor it could ve a very exciting few months.

[adam-machiavelli]

I don't think Doucet is anti-development. The media and many people in this city always over-simplifiy candidates' campaigns to pro- and anti-development. Doucet is pro good development, as I think many of us are. I've worked on municipal election campaigns and have always been warned by senior campaign officials to never EVER discuss development with potential supporters because the candidate is screwed regardless of what is in his or her platform on development. Although I do agree that it's always important to keep the campaigning positive in the beginning. The sooner you "go negative", the nastier the campaign gets by the election date.

[reidjr]

I don't think Doucet is anti-development. The media and many people in this city always over-simplifiy candidates' campaigns to pro- and anti-development. Doucet is pro good development, as I think many of us are. I've worked on municipal election campaigns and have always been warned by senior campaign officials to never EVER discuss development with potential supporters because the candidate is screwed regardless of what is in his or her platform on development. Although I do agree that it's always important to keep the campaigning positive in the beginning. The sooner you "go negative", the nastier the campaign gets by the election date.

Look at the amount of projects he is aginst the condo with the grocery store just as an exzample.The logic ottawa needs a big park that alone scares me and i think could cost him a ton of votes.

[Dado]

Well, we can pretty much wave goodbye to Doucet and Cullen it seems. Comments like Doucet's are not going to win him much support. How can the city be run by developers? If it were, tall towers would actually get built and maybe things would happen at City Hall.

Funny, I haven't seen a single condo development on Richmond Road in Westboro that ended up respecting the existing height limits. The way things work is that the developers put forth an application that violates everything left, right and centre, city staff recommend approval with a few minor changes and Council either votes for it or against it. If they vote for, it goes ahead. If against, it goes to the OMB where, because Council voted against city staff (even if defending the original zoning), the OMB finds in favour of the developers. There's never any real doubt that, in the end, one way or another, the developer will get far more height than they knew the zoning allowed for.

Why is it that city staff are routinely recommending against policies that they themselves have often prepared?

[adam-machiavelli]

Look at the amount of projects he is aginst the condo with the grocery store just as an exzample.The logic ottawa needs a big park that alone scares me and i think could cost him a ton of votes.

How does a big park "scare" you? I think it's a perfectly reasonable amenity that we should seriously consider for a number of reasons:

1. If the City is to promote smaller lots and stacked housing, it must compensate the loss of private green space with bigger and better quality urban parks.

2. Ottawa is pretty much the only major city in Canada without a large, functioning urban park. Toronto has High Park, Montreal has Mount Royal Park, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Saskatoon have the river valleys, Winnipeg has Assiniboine Park, Vancouver has Stanley Park, etc.

Ottawa has nothing. By the way, Gatineau Park doesn't count because people in this city treat it as a drive-thru forest.

[reidjr]

How does a big park "scare" you? I think it's a perfectly reasonable amenity that we should seriously consider for a number of reasons:

1. If the City is to promote smaller lots and stacked housing, it must compensate the loss of private green space with bigger and better quality urban parks.

2. Ottawa is pretty much the only major city in Canada without a large, functioning urban park. Toronto has High Park, Montreal has Mount Royal Park, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Saskatoon have the river valleys, Winnipeg has Assiniboine Park, Vancouver has Stanley Park, etc.

Ottawa has nothing. By the way, Gatineau Park doesn't count because people in this city treat it as a drive-thru forest.

Ottawa has around 6-8 large parks to say it has nothing is 100% false.Out of all of the major city i would say ottawa has the most green space and parks there are well over 820 parks plus massive amounts of green space..One of ottawa major issues is there is tons of green space and parks some would say to much and not enough of other things.The logic that ottawa has no big parks is so far from the truth just look up ottawa parks and you will see how may big parks there are.With that said you want a very large park fine then turn 400-600 other parks into soccer fields and football fields.Ottawa is not lacking parks and green space ottawa is lacking arena and playing fields.I have some respect for clive for how he does atnd up for what he beleaves in.

[Kitchissippi]

How does a big park "scare" you? I think it's a perfectly reasonable amenity that we should seriously consider for a number of reasons:

1. If the City is to promote smaller lots and stacked housing, it must compensate the loss of private green space with bigger and better quality urban parks.

2. Ottawa is pretty much the only major city in Canada without a large, functioning urban park. Toronto has High Park, Montreal has Mount Royal Park, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Saskatoon have the river valleys, Winnipeg has Assiniboine Park, Vancouver has Stanley Park, etc.

Ottawa has nothing. By the way, Gatineau Park doesn't count because people in this city treat it as a drive-thru forest.

How are Major's Hill, Confederation Park, Lebreton Flats, and Jacques Cartier Park not "functioning urban parks"? Very few cities can boast urban parks that can handle festivals and large events right smack in the middle of downtown like Ottawa can. Add Vincent Massey Park, Lac-Leamy, Parc Labaie, the Lac-des-Fees portion of Gatineau Park and the entire Ottawa River shoreline and we've got an excessive amount that even the federal government has a hard time maintaining their share.

[Proof Sheet]

I don't think Doucet is anti-development. The media and many people in this city always over-simplifiy candidates' campaigns to pro- and anti-development. Doucet is pro good development, as I think many of us are.

My only experience with Doucet came over a year ago at a Community Association meeting in his ward. The head of the Community Association was firmly against the application I was acting on behalf of, many of the people in the room didn't know what the fuss was all about (in other words they didn't have any fundamental objections to the development proposal), the adjacent neighbours were onside after a couple of agreed upon tweeks. Doucet basically told the head of the Community Assocation that no application was absolutely perfect and that the application would have an overall positive impact and that it should be allowed to be approved.

[bradnixon]

How are Major's Hill, Confederation Park, Lebreton Flats, and Jacques Cartier Park not "functioning urban parks"? Very few cities can boast urban parks that can handle festivals and large events right smack in the middle of downtown like Ottawa can. Add Vincent Massey Park, Lac-Leamy, Parc Labaie, the Lac-des-Fees portion of Gatineau Park and the entire Ottawa River shoreline and we've got an excessive amount that even the federal government has a hard time maintaining their share.

And, if you want to strictly count City of Ottawa Parks, you can add:

-Strathcona
-Andy Haydon
-Mooney's Bay
-Brittania

[adam-machiavelli]

Those are all good parks. But they're not all that big. By the way, the open space along the rivers aren't parks; they're recreation corridors. That's different. Anyway, this is deviating from the topic that Clive Doucet is not as scary or anti-development as some people seem to think. I just wish the vox populi was more sophisticated and could discuss urban development in a less confrontational manner.

[reidjr]

Those are all good parks. But they're not all that big. By the way, the open space along the rivers aren't parks; they're recreation corridors. That's different. Anyway, this is deviating from the topic that Clive Doucet is not as scary or anti-development as some people seem to think. I just wish the vox populi was more sophisticated and could discuss urban development in a less confrontational manner.

Some of them are large parks large enough to hold 30,000.Maybe anti devlopment is a bit strong he speaks out alot why is he aginst a grocery store downtown etc.Let me ask you this if you had a choice one or 2 extra big parks would you take that over say 400 other parks.

[bradnixon]

Those are all good parks. But they're not all that big. By the way, the open space along the rivers aren't parks; they're recreation corridors. That's different. Anyway, this is deviating from the topic that Clive Doucet is not as scary or anti-development as some people seem to think. I just wish the vox populi was more sophisticated and could discuss urban development in a less confrontational manner.

I totally disagree. Of course they're parks. All of the parks I listed are pretty big, they're not just "corridors". Mooney's Bay, for example, is big enough to hold the Hope Volleyball festival. Britannia has bbqs and a big picnic shelter.

[reidjr]

I totally disagree. Of course they're parks. All of the parks I listed are pretty big, they're not just "corridors". Mooney's Bay, for example, is big enough to hold the Hope Volleyball festival. Britannia has bbqs and a big picnic shelter.

Even look at lebreton flats may not be a true park but not many areas have a out door area that big right downtown.

[adam-machiavelli]

Obviously if it has the word "park" after its name (Mooney's bay, Britannia, etc), it is a park. I was referring to the bike path corridors. And while I appreciate our many medium-sized parks, you really can't escape the city in them. If the experimental farm became an urban park, could you imagine how great that would be?

[Kitchissippi]

There is not much city to escape from, and you can certainly escape it when you are in the middle of the experimental farm. Why does a park have to be big to be good?

[adam-machiavelli]

So that you can have a variety of uses, landscapes and views within an accessible area. Just read what Olmsted said about how he designed his parks.

[reidjr]

So that you can have a variety of uses, landscapes and views within an accessible area. Just read what Olmsted said about how he designed his parks.

So would you trade 400 parks for one big one.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

How does a big park "scare" you? I think it's a perfectly reasonable amenity that we should seriously consider for a number of reasons:

1. If the City is to promote smaller lots and stacked housing, it must compensate the loss of private green space with bigger and better quality urban parks.

2. Ottawa is pretty much the only major city in Canada without a large, functioning urban park. Toronto has High Park, Montreal has Mount Royal Park, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Saskatoon have the river valleys, Winnipeg has Assiniboine Park, Vancouver has Stanley Park, etc.

Ottawa has nothing. By the way, Gatineau Park doesn't count because people in this city treat it as a drive-thru forest.

If that's the case, then we should put the Botanical Gardens beside the Arboretum as was planned in the 80's and convert most of the remaining Central Experimental Farm into an urban park with a few outlying parts sold off to be developed with medium to high density condos, townhouses, etc.

But let's be realistic; this is Ottawa. If we do get a park, it'll be a huge grass field with some trees like always, or it'll be like Lansdowne where the cool parts of the proposal are removed for the sake of cost. People in Ottawa are also frighteningly stupid I've come to realize. Take for instance the very Botanical Gardens I mentioned. When they were proposed, it was met with stiff opposition because people felt it would "ruin the neighbourhood" and "take away from walking your dog in the Arboretum". Those were listed reasons. Further more, this city is currently incapable of coming to terms with its governance problems and taking any kind of meaningful action.

As for the idea of a large park "scaring" some on SSP, it's more than warranted when we have people live Clive and jemartin who are suggesting we either let Lansdowne continue to linger in dilapidation or say "screw fun and exciting things like professional sports in the area they've existed for over a century" to replace a sea of asphalt with a sea of grass. Not much of an improvement if you ask me.

[kwoldtimer]

[QUOTE=Jamaican-Phoenix;4903935]If that's the case, then we should put the Botanical Gardens beside the Arboretum as was planned in the 80's and convert most of the remaining Central Experimental Farm into an urban park with a few outlying parts sold off to be developed with medium to high density condos, townhouses, etc. .......... QUOTE]

Subject for a different thread and not going to happen for a host of reasons, but that would be fantastic - the CEF (with Botanical Garden), Arboretum and Dow's Lake/Commissioners Park, all with the Canal adjacent, could together over time to constitute a magnificent urban park that could compare well to any in the world, if the vision and will were there. Too bad its fed land rather than City.

The thing about Landsdowne is that, even if it were entirely green space, which nobody is suggesting, it wouldn't be all that big a park.

[Proof Sheet]

Can't we all get back to bad mouthing councillors that we are either glad aren't running, or are running for mayor without a hope or are upset that they are running again as they have 'unfinished business' to wrap up while on another term on Council.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

The thing about Landsdowne is that, even if it were entirely green space, which nobody is suggesting, it wouldn't be all that big a park.

I am well aware of that, but people like jemartin, Clive Doucet and numerous Glebites seem rather bent on associating Lansdowne with Central Park or rather a Lansdowne that could become a Central Park which is absurd and impossible.

[kwoldtimer]

But how does Denley really FEEL about Doucet? :tup:

The right decision, the wrong way
Plan opponents did no one proud with time-wasting

By Randall Denley, The Ottawa Citizen June 29, 2010

I suppose it was predictable, perhaps inevitable. Even though the outcome of the final vote on redeveloping Lansdowne Park was clear from the outset of Monday's meeting, councillors opposed to the plan couldn't deal with the matter without treating the public to a day-long display of hair-splitting, shouting and obstructionism.

The revitalization of Lansdowne Park will be an historic achievement that will transform a civic embarrassment into a significant asset. It will be this council's greatest accomplishment. You'd never know it from the way the issue was handled.

After months of reports and questions, there was little if anything new that could have been asked, but that didn't deter councillors. Once one gets over the idea that a question has to make some kind of sense or elicit new information, the rest is a snap. Councillors who oppose the Lansdowne plan chewed up the better part of the day asking questions that had been asked and answered numerous times. Nevertheless, the hunt for a fatal flaw in the plan continued.

The best shot for the nine councillors opposed to the Lansdowne deal was to defer a decision until after October's election. Councillor Alex Cullen led the charge there. One has to admit a certain attraction to delaying major matters until Cullen is not on council, but this was a last desperate act of a councillor who hasn't been able to persuade the public that there are good reasons to reject the deal. Perhaps the mayoral candidate fantasized about a Cullen-led council killing the deal.

Cullen argued that the community is divided on the issue. Does he think that an election would create consensus?

This deferral motion was so special that Councillor Clive Doucet chose to address it standing up. He didn't make any more sense than he had sitting down, but it did enable more enthusiastic arm-waving. Doucet has convinced himself that the land is being given away for a shopping mall. His point was that the project was so bad that he couldn't even vote to defer it. Apparently he didn't convince himself, because he voted the other way.

Despite stiff competition, Councillor Marianne Wilkinson came up with the looniest plan of the day.

Wilkinson actually moved a motion that the city put up some temporary stands and try football for a year or two. One can be for or against the actual proposal, but Wilkinson's approach was just silly.

Once it became clear that no substantive amendment to the Lansdowne plan would pass, councillors switched to a combination of motions specifying provisions that were already in the deal and micromanagement of the details, right down to saying exactly how many bike parking spaces there should be.

The only real "accomplishment" from all this talk was an agreement to exclude the neighbourhood Sylvia Holden Park from the overall plan. That will leave Glebe residents with less than they would have had, but it will save the rest of us $7.6 million.

Councillors also struggled with the plan for a new trade and consumer show building. Skepticism is useful, but not when it overwhelms common sense. Right now, the city provides the buildings for trade and consumer shows at Lansdowne Park. It accepts all the risk, all the cost and does a second-rate job. As part of the Lansdowne deal, the city puts up less than one-quarter of the cost of a new, better building at the airport and doesn't have to operate it. That's a good deal all around.

As they passed the hours niggling over details, councillors lost sight of the fact that they had already approved the deal in principle, last year, subject to a series of conditions. Monday's debate should have been about how well those conditions had been met.

Voting intelligently on the Lansdowne project required some hard work to understand the deal, followed by the ability to exercise one's judgment. That ought to be well within the capabilities of a competent city councillor. There was no need to refer it all to the public in the next election. It's not even clear how the public would have expressed its views, short of a referendum.

Councillors have had months to ask questions and make up their minds. On the last day, it was unlikely that anyone would be swayed. Proposing more than 40 amendments, as councillors did, was overkill. Most of it was redundant fiddling designed to create the illusion that something had been accomplished.

The Lansdowne plan isn't perfect, but it is highly supportable. We should be thankful that the majority on this council are prepared to take some risks and spend some money to make our city better. It's too bad that a minority of councillors can't see the big picture.

[Dado]

Ken Gray just posted a couple of YouTube videos made up of excerpts from O'Brien's announcement (possibly someone - not me, honest - took the advice I gave at the end of my earlier post: If either Cullen or Watson or an anti-O'Brien group wanted to make a negative attack ad or two, they could just piece together a few clips from that speech.):

http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/bulldog/archive/2010/07/12/the-youtube-people-are-after-larry-o-brien.aspx

tYi7svC2dlI


http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/bulldog/archive/2010/07/12/and-there-s-more.aspx

8kwta-xHDaA


Apparently he even screwed up the "camel designed by committee" joke, which I missed when I listened to it live (cringing does that to you).


I started watching O'Brien's press conference on A Channel this morning. I say "started" because after 5 minutes of it I couldn't take it any more.

His speech was unpractised. He flubbed the opening statement of his announcement to run for mayor. At one point he expressed his interest in becoming leader of "this count. city" except of course "count.", as in "country", sounded like "cunt".

He started pleading to have the contest about "leadership". Apparently leadership is about progress. That's what our sage Mayor says. There was a recital of some lame joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee, which is bad enough, but he then went on to say that he "agreed with that". Great insight, there...

It was cringeworthy stuff and it just kept coming. That and its very vapidness. I had to turn it off; I couldn't bear to listen anymore.

It'll be interesting to see what footage the media uses because they basically don't have any of him not screwing up the announcement of the very thing he's running for. If either Cullen or Watson or an anti-O'Brien group wanted to make a negative attack ad or two, they could just piece together a few clips from that speech.

P.S.

Here's the entire announcement from A-Channel in all its glory with no snarky comments or the like:

e9cCcP8J1Ug

See if you can watch it without turning away!

[Davis137]

I think I'll vote for O'Brien, just because he's a trouble-maker for the other people in council...

I applaud the amount of commentary and passion being demonstrated in this thread...

[Proof Sheet]

tYi7svC2dlI


O'Brien's wife looks bored out of her mind in the 1st video...or she could be trying to figure out what Larry is talking about.

[Ottawan]

Mayor O'Brien`s speech was genius - it gives voice to all of my long-held concerns about Melba Toast.

[Davis137]

He's kinda like me, in that he's a white guy who's got a clean-shaven head, and a younger wife...

Mind you, mine's even younger, hotter, and she's Haitian...

[c_speed3108]

CP sponsored poll out today:

July 2-4

Watson 29
O'Brien 22
Cullen 10

+/- 4.4 19/20

According to CTV Cullen was at 10 and Doucet had not yet entered the race.

Doucet will presumably pull mostly from Cullen's numbers and maybe slightly from Watson.




Challenger jumps to lead over flamboyant incumbent in race for Ottawa mayor

By: The Canadian Press

14/07/2010 7:32 AM

OTTAWA - The campaign for mayor of the nation's capital is a two-man race between a former mayor and provincial cabinet minister and an incumbent who spent much of his first term fighting criminal charges.

Larry O'Brien's recent decision to run for re-election has turned the Ottawa mayoralty race from a sauntering near-certainty for Jim Watson to a slugfest between the former provincial Liberal and the conservative O'Brien.

There are at least 14 candidates running for the city's top job, but it's Watson, 48, and O'Brien, 60, who are consistently out front in public opinion polls, with Watson holding a decided lead in most.

The latest survey, done exclusively for The Canadian Press by Harris-Decima, indicates the race may be tightening somewhat.

It found 29 per cent of respondents said they would vote for Watson in the Oct. 25 municipal election, while 22 per cent said they'd back O'Brien.

The survey of 501 Ottawa residents was conducted July 2-4, immediately after O'Brien announced he would run for re-election following his crowning achievement — a closely watched vote to develop the city's dormant football stadium and surrounding parkland.

A sample that size in a city the size of Ottawa — with a population of just under a million people — is considered accurate within 4.4 points, 19 times in 20. So the two frontrunners could conceivably be tied.

O'Brien's popularity has rebounded since he was acquitted last August on influence-peddling charges related to allegations he promised a rival candidate a federal job in exchange for dropping out of the 2006 mayoral race.

The bald and brash Conservative, technology consultant and entrepreneur won that election in a landslide.

But his support nosedived when he doggedly refused to quit his job in the face of criminal charges, got caught up in a protracted and bitter transit strike and then hiked property taxes after making "zero means zero" his campaign rallying cry.

O'Brien's first budget increase was only 0.3 per cent, but city council increased levies more than three per cent in each of the last three budget years.

Watson has pounced on the tax issue, deriding increases "well beyond the rate of inflation" and calling O'Brien's zero-means-zero promise a gimmick.

"For the past four years we have had erratic leadership and we’ve paid for it with higher taxes," he said.

While mayor in the 1990s, Watson said he froze taxes for two years, reduced the city's debt load and increased its reserve funds.

Now he's promising to cap annual tax hikes at 2.5 per cent, well below the 2010 increase of 3.77 per cent approved by council earlier this year.

"A zero tax increase is simply not practical without doing serious damage to the services we count on and need," he's said.

O'Brien has dismissed Watson a professional politician.

“I’ve told Jim many times that he’s the single best politician that I’ve ever met,” said O’Brien. “I don’t think that’s what the city needs. I think the city needs progress.”

He said he couldn’t think of a single thing Watson did as a former mayor of Ottawa to make the city a better place.

So far, Watson has largely avoided head-on confrontation with O'Brien, all the while lamenting council's "never-ending and divisive debates."

The latest survey has some good news for both candidates. It suggests that most Ottawa residents now see the city under O'Brien's watch as heading in the right direction.

"Compared to historical tracking, Ottawa residents are feeling much more positive about the direction in which the city is headed than they have been over the past five years," said pollster Doug Anderson.

Roughly half (49 per cent) of respondents said they felt Ottawa is headed in the right direction compared to 36 per cent who said it isn't.

That's in sharp contrast to last fall, when 55 per cent said they felt the city was headed in the wrong direction and only 29 per cent said it was headed the right way.

"Satisfaction with Mayor O'Brien's performance is divided, but continues to outstrip that of city council in general," Anderson said.

"Historically, it was usually the case that the mayor had a slight edge over city council in terms of residents' satisfaction, but Mayor O'Brien appears to have had a larger gap than previous mayor Bob Chiarelli and continues to enjoy this relative edge."

While 48 per cent indicated some level of satisfaction with the current mayor's performance, roughly the same number — 46 per cent said they were dissatisfied. That's better than the satisfaction rates with city council, though: 38 per cent satisfied; 56 per cent dissatisfied.

The poll indicates Watson has a significant lead in terms of favourability, with nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of residents holding a favourable impression of him and only 17 per cent holding a negative impression.

O'Brien and the No. 3 candidate, Councillor Alex Cullen, have virtually identical proportions holding favourable impressions, at 44 per cent. But O'Brien has far more detractors than any other candidate, with 44 per cent of poll respondents holding a negative impression of him.

Head-to-head, the survey suggests Watson leads O'Brien on having the leadership qualities to be mayor, with more than twice the share (36-16) of decided respondents saying he had the right stuff.

[JCL]

tYi7svC2dlI

8kwta-xHDaA



Why do I get the sense that "MrOttawaCitizen" is/was the author of zeromeanszero.blogspot.com.

[adam-machiavelli]

Over the next few weeks, Randal Denley will be "profiling" (endorsing) candidates who don't appear to challenge his world views: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Denley+face+remember/3406197/story.html.

Profile 1 is a maverick named Lilly Obina, MBA. From Denley's typical "everyman" review, he describes her platform as being EXACTLY THE SAME as every other candidate -except for one aspect that pretty much has him drooling. She loves the suburbs and probably supports more sprawl.

[c_speed3108]

Well, well, well...

A welcome blast from the past


By Randall Denley, The Ottawa Citizen August 15, 2010


Randall Denley



He’s back. Irascible former regional chairman Peter Clark is one of the last people one would have expected to return to municipal politics, but Clark will announce his candidacy in Rideau-Rockcliffe ward next week. If he’s elected, Clark would give significant additional fiscal credibility to a council that sorely needs it.

As regional chair from 1991 to 1997, Clark built a reputation as a man who kept a careful eye on the public’s money, and it’s spending that is drawing him back to municipal politics at the age of 72.

“We have to tighten the screws down, not on the taxpayer, but on the way we spend money,” Clark says. The city can get its job done without big tax increases, Clark says, “they just need to manage better.”

As regional chairman, Clark was more of a manager than a politician.

He was no glad-hander, said what he thought and didn’t really care who he offended. Clark was defeated by much more political Bob Chiarelli in 1997 after running an indifferent campaign.

As regional chair, Clark didn’t seem to enjoy the nonsense around the council table, so it’s a surprise to see him volunteer to re-enter politics at a time when people hold council in low esteem. There’s no need for council to act like a circus, Clark says, and he will do his best to change the tone, if elected.

Clark declined to comment on the performance of Mayor Larry O’Brien, saying the more important issue is what the next council will do.

Clark also isn’t picking a favourite in the mayoral race, but one would have to guess he’d be more comfortable with Jim Watson. There is only space for so many alpha males in the same room.

The former politician certainly hasn’t lost his edge.

Clark maintains that councillors Clive Doucet and Alex Cullen are not serious candidates for mayor and are only running to get the severance paid to candidates who run and lose. Council’s decision to reward only those who are defeated was a bad move, Clark says. Councillors should be given something for their service, not because the voters threw them out.

While spending is clearly his main issue, Clark says that the city is taking the right course in building a downtown tunnel. That was always seen as the long-term solution, he says, even in the heyday of the city’s bus transitway expansion. The tunnel is necessary and delay in building it will only make it more expensive.

Both O’Brien and Watson will focus on economic development in their campaigns and Clark agrees that it’s an important priority for the city, saying that Ottawa “went to sleep” on economic development. In his ward, Clark identifies the proposed Kettle Island bridge as the major issue, saying that it’s the wrong location for the bridge.

Clark says he has already put together part of his team and he intends to run a full-scale campaign with the usual leaflets, signs and door knocking. “If you don’t, people will say that you’re taking them for granted.”

Clark retired as head of the Canadian Standards Council more than two years ago. He’s an avid bridge player, but one would assume that he’s looking for something else to do with his time. Clark says he believes he can make a contribution and no one who knows him would doubt that. This council is somewhat heavy with old hands, but Clark is a veteran who has more to offer than sheer longevity.

With the retirement of Councillor Jacques Legendre, there has been an outburst of democratic enthusiasm in Rideau-Rockcliffe ward. Eight other candidates have already registered, although former PC provincial candidate Bruce Poulin is the only one with any name recognition. If Clark doesn’t win this race, the voters of Rideau-Rockcliffe will have done the city a disservice.

Also in the blast from the past category, but a far less welcome one, is Terry Kilrea. The former mayoral and council candidate decided this week that Bay Ward needed a ninth contender. Kilrea immediately reminded people what he was all about by dumping on francophones and people on social assistance. This guy should have bonehead tattooed on his forehead.

When he ran for mayor against Bob Chiarelli, Kilrea persuaded people that he was a straight-shooting, if unsophisticated, kind of guy. Kilrea’s testimony during the influence peddling trial of Larry O’Brien created a far different picture. There, he revealed himself to be desperate for a better-paying job, not terribly bright and as good at shading the truth as any politician.

Voters in Bay Ward will have a tough time sorting through the long list of candidates, but they could simplify the task slightly by eliminating Kilrea’s name from their list. He’s just about the definition of what our city council doesn’t need.

Contact Randall Denley

at 613-596-3756 or by e-mail,

rdenley@thecitizen.canwest.com

[adam-machiavelli]

Profile 2: Peter Clark. If he's elected, Clark will be so big (in a reputation sense) that his influence will easily out-do all the other councilors and he'd become either the opposition leader or the mayor's henchman; not good for power dynamics on council.

For god's sake, we need some young blood...please!

[Dado]

:previous:

Well at least Shawn Little won't be coming back. And even if he did, at least he'd be running in Kitchissippi Ward again, which already has a strong incumbent, so he wouldn't win by splitting the vote amongst a multitude of other candidates with less name recognition.

Oh. (http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/bulldog/archive/2010/08/17/speculation-has-shawn-little-announcing-candidacy-in-bay-ward.aspx)

[adam-machiavelli]

Lovely. At least this time he'd be running in the ward where he actually lives.

[danny the dog]

Well at least Shawn Little won't be coming back. And even if he did, at least he'd be running in Kitchissippi Ward again, which already has a strong incumbent, so he wouldn't win by splitting the vote amongst a multitude of other candidates with less name recognition.

Oh.

Ahahahahaha, I nearly fell off my chair when I read that. Not just because it's Shawn Little, which is enough to make me laugh, but the fact that it's in Bay ward just adds to hilarity. The Bay's gonna be crazy come October, I'm glad I live in Kitchissippi.

[Cre47]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+council+incumbent+McRae+will+River+ward/3424421/story.html

Ottawa council incumbent McRae will run in River ward

The Ottawa Citizen August 20, 2010 6:02 PM

McRae running for re-election in River ward

OTTAWA — The sitting councillor for River ward is running for city council again, she announced Friday afternoon.

Maria McRae, a lawyer and former aide to her predecessor Wendy Stewart, was first elected in 2003 and chairs city council's transportation committee.

She cites local improvements as the ones of which she's most proud, including renovating the Rideau Canoe Club and helping turn around the Banff-Ledbury community.

McRae joins challengers Michael Kostiuk and Nadia Willard in the race.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen


------------------------------------

Anyone bet that Blake Baston will jump in the fray as well in River Ward?

[Cre47]

Why do I get the sense that "MrOttawaCitizen" is/was the author of zeromeanszero.blogspot.com.


Hey I'm surprised that the blog hasn't return. Neither the other one which is inactive since around I think April last time I've checked.

[Cre47]

First Cullen drops out and goes for another mandate in Bay. Well he would be much better then the visionless-Kilrea for sure due to his anti-train stance in the past - in the previous election campaigns. Quite frankly Cullen shouldn't have run at all for mayor since there was no chance of winning because of course (and unfortuneatly) the allergic of this city of having a centre-left mayor.

Cullen drops out of mayoral race

Councillor will run again in Bay Ward

By Claire Brownell, The Ottawa Citizen August 31, 2010 2:12 PM Comments (6)

OTTAWA — Alex Cullen has confirmed he is dropping out of the mayoral race and will run again in Bay Ward.

During an interview with CFRA's Mark Sutcliffe Tuesday morning, Cullen said the main reason for his decision was a lack of campaign funds.

"I don't have the resources to run a competitive campaign, so I'm dropping out of the race," he said.

Cullen also said he wanted to present a strong alternative to candidate Terry Kilrea, who is also running for a council position in Bay Ward. Cullen said the other candidates were mostly inexperienced.

"They don't have my track record," he said.

Cullen said Clive Doucet's decision to run for mayor, adding another left-wing candidate to the race and potentially splitting the vote, "wasn't helpful."

However, he said that wasn't the main reason for his decision to drop out of the race.

Cullen said he would continue to champion the same issues in council that he supported during his mayoral campaign, such as light rail. He said he was focused on the council position, but didn't rule out the possibility of running for the NDP in next year's provincial election.

"What decision people are going to make in a year from now, who knows?" he said.

Cullen was scheduled to hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Capital Councillor Clive Doucet, another mayoral candidate, said he has sympathy for Cullen.

“It’s very difficult to raise a quarter of a million dollars if you don’t have development backing you,” he said.

Similar to Cullen, Doucet has said his campaign will be financed by “small donations from ordinary people.”

“I’m getting the same difficult lessons that Alex got,” Doucet said Tuesday, adding it has cost him about $37,000 just to set up an election office.

Doucet wouldn’t disclose how much money his campaign has received, but said he continues to raise funds and has no intention of dropping out.

“We will have enough money to run a reasonable campaign. Will we have enough to put bus cards on buses? No, we won’t. Will we have enough money for television ads? No, we won’t. We’re going to be creative in how we use our money, for sure,” he said.

Despite Cullen’s withdrawal, the field of mayoral candidates remains large. Fifteen people have filed their papers, including a few recent entrants.

Joseph Furtenbacher describes himself as “moral philosopher of all disciplines, academic of none,” and said Tuesday that he wants to use the mayoral campaign to promote his ideas.

Furtenbacher said he wants to make Ottawa “an example for the rest of the world to follow.”

His main concern is “about the level of inequality in this city,” he said, adding “I think we could do a lot more with a lot less.”

Meanwhile, Robert G. Gauthier and Robert Larter have returned to the mayoral race. Both had signed up earlier and withdrew, but are now listed as candidates.

Stan Pioro no longer appears as a mayoral candidate on the city’s website.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen


-----------------------------------------------------
Doucet loses campaign manager


The Ottawa Citizen August 31, 2010 2:03 PM


Declan Hill, an investigative freelance journalist, has left his position as campaign manager for Clive Doucet. The demands of his work became too much, Doucet said Aug. 31, 2010.


OTTAWA — Investigative journalist Declan Hill is no longer managing Clive Doucet’s mayoral campaign.

Doucet announced in late July that Hill, a freelance journalist and documentary maker who specializes in organized crime and international affairs, would run his campaign.

But the demands of his work proved to be too much, and Hill left the position about a week ago, Doucet said on Tuesday.

“I’m still a great fan of Declan and he still supports the campaign,” said Doucet, adding that Hill, who took on corruption in soccer in a recent book, is frequently travelling.

“It was just too much of a stress for him to be travelling and trying to run a really big campaign at the same time.”

Doucet said Hill’s responsibilities have now been spread around his campaign office, with campaign co-ordinator Erin O’Manique — a project manager — doling out the work.

Hill couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. He has reported widely for the CBC and also for the BBC and other organizations such as PBS, winning several journalism awards. His book The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime, was published last year.

Hill told the Citizen soon after he started working for Doucet’s campaign that he was “willing to bring new ideas and see where we can go.”

On Tuesday, Doucet said “Declan gave us a great kick-start, and he brought all kinds of new ideas and talents.”

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[Dado]

I think this is right, but does anyone know about the remaining three?

Running for re-election on Council (16)
Running for Mayor (2)
Not running (3)
Unknown (3)

Mayor Larry O-Brien
Councillor Georges Bédard
Councillor Michel Bellemare
Councillor Rainer Bloess
Councillor Glenn Brooks
Councillor Rick Chiarelli
Councillor Alex Cullen
Councillor Diane Deans
Councillor Steve Desroches
Councillor Clive Doucet
Councillor Eli El-Chantiry
Councillor Peggy Feltmate
Councillor Jan Harder
Councillor Diane Holmes
Councillor Peter Hume
Councillor Gord Hunter
Councillor Rob Jellett
Councillor Christine Leadman
Councillor Jacques Legendre
Councillor Maria McRae
Councillor Bob Monette
Councillor Shad Qadri
Councillor Doug Thompson
Councillor Marianne Wilkinson

[Ciemny]

Ive heard the interview on CFRA with Cullen. He really got upset when asked if he would run for the NDP in next years provincial election even if he won his ward seat. He accused "you media types" of trying to drag out some story....but never did he say he would NOT run.

Even if this was (god forbid) my favorite candidate I would be tuned away from voting for hi if I found out his heart was not into the job and he might bail in a year. Its selfish and self serving but that seems to be expected from most politicians.

[adam-machiavelli]

I sent this around to a few local print media outlets. But it was never published:

*Real Council Reform Should Return Power Back to the Citizens*

Mayoral candidate Jim Watson recently pondered reforming city council by creating a smaller council and dividing the city into boroughs. All Mr. Watson’s proposal does is concentrate power into the hands of an even smaller group of career politicians, with little difference of opinion between each, and create an extra level of government that would have no real power.

Any reform that happens to Ottawa’s City Council should benefit the city’s wide variety of voters because ultimately, it is them who elected officials must serve. Real council reform should be based on New Hampshire’s House of Representatives –a legislature consisting of 400 members (for a state with a population slightly more than greater Ottawa), each of whom are paid an annual honourarium of $200 for their service to the state and represent a diverse cross section of the state’s population. Even though each representative only takes on a small role (as opposed to a few politicians taking on many responsibilities –each amassing quite a lot of power), collectively they work as hard as any other legislature.

This system has many advantages that lead to more and better input from many different citizens in legislation. The first advantage is that because the work is divided amongst so many people, being a Representative is a part-time job. Therefore, members don’t seek to become career politicians. They are primarily interested in serving the public good. The second advantage is despite such a low wage, the risk of influence peddling and bribery is minimal because due to the large size of the legislative body, each member only has a relatively small amount of influence.

With a similar amount of resources as required to maintain the current council, such a system of representation could be implemented in the City of Ottawa to replace the small, inward-looking bunch of current politicians who are no different from those of the past, and will be no different from those of future councils under the current council model.

An adaptation of the New Hampshire model for Ottawa would be as follows:

The Council

The council would be comprised of about 200 councilors, meeting two or three times per month –as is the current frequency of meetings. There would be no government or opposition, just members elected to represent their constituents. But unlike the current system, instead of a mayor, there would be a Speaker of the Council whose role would be to manage the operation of City Council and act as its external spokesperson. The speaker would be elected by a majority vote by councilors, much like a provincial or federal legislative speaker. Council would typically meet in the evenings or on weekends, to make it easier for people who work during the day to attend meetings (this applies to councilors, observers, and presenters).

Representation

Multiple councilors would represent individual constituencies (districts) of 30,000 to 50,000 people. Given the total number of councilors, each councilor would represent about 3,000 people. Multi-member districts balance representation of geographic and non-geographic (such as income, ethnicity, and ideology) constituencies, and encourage councilors with different perspectives to work together on common issues.

Election

Councilors would be elected every four years by single-transferable vote. In other words, voters would rank as many candidates as they wanted running in their district. Through a system of quotas, the most preferred candidates equal to the number of councilors for the district would be elected to City Council. Assuming current levels of voter turnout, a typical quota might be 1,000 votes. Allowing people to be elected with so few votes keeps campaign costs low, allowing more people to be able to afford to run for elected office.

Administration

Due to the higher number of councilors and part-time nature of their work, council’s administrative resources would be divided amongst more elected officials. This division would include councilors from the same constituencies sharing staff and smaller individual office budgets. The Speaker’s Office would manage council business with help from the Clerk’s Office.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of City Council would not be much different from the current council, but would also include hiring city managers (There would be five managers and a C.E.O. responsible for different departments, elected by majority vote), attending committee meetings, holding office hours to meet with the public or other officials, and seeking advice from city staff for creating policies and by-laws. Councilors would be expected to devote six hours per week to their public responsibilities.

Remuneration

Each councilor would receive an annual honourarium of $600, as well as have their travel expenses covered. Urban councilors would receive a bus pass or a bike, while rural councilors would receive money to cover gas expenses or a rural bus pass.

Reforming Ottawa’s City Council in a manner similar to New Hampshire’s House of Representatives would bring a greater diversity of opinions to City Hall, allow a greater number of citizens to participate in the decision-making process, and take self-interested career politicians out of public affairs -leading to policies and by-laws with better public input, more public support, and ultimately more public faith in democracy and government.

[reidjr]

Adam
With your plan ottawa would have the most council in north america.More then new york/la/toronto/chicago etc.Those citys much bigger have much smaller council and out side of some cases run much better then ottawa.

[adam-machiavelli]

You're comparing apples and oranges. This council would not operate like a typical city council. It would be made up of a very large and diverse cross-section of the city and paid just an honorarium to fulfill their civic duties. It works very well in New Hampshire. That state has one of the highest rates of public confidence in government in North America.

[reidjr]

You're comparing apples and oranges. This council would not operate like a typical city council. It would be made up of a very large and diverse cross-section of the city and paid just an honorarium to fulfill their civic duties. It works very well in New Hampshire. That state has one of the highest rates of public confidence in government in North America.

Thats the thing new hampshire which is a state has the same system all across.For something like that to work here you would have to have it all acrosse ontario not just one city.

[adam-machiavelli]

It doesn't need to be all across Ontario. But if it came to pass, I, along with many other people who don't see their views reflected by current politicians would be very happy.

[waterloowarrior]

From Mayor O'Brien's speech

Second, with the LRT project on the right track we now we need to turn our attention to roads. Nos routes sont aussi importantes.

A city the size of Ottawa will always need roads for personal and business travel. I will continue to work to make the City an auto friendly place to live. There will be no moratorium on roads with me as Mayor.

As your Mayor I will start negotiations with the Province of Ontario for the planning of a ring road around Ottawa that will ease congestion in the core of the City.

[eternallyme]

A distant ring road seems like overkill at this point. The traffic drawn off it would not solve any traffic issues at all on the Queensway. The AADT's of highways near the city boundary:

417W at Arnprior - about 17,000
7 at Carleton Place - about 19,000
416 at Kemptville - about 22,000
417E at Limoges - about 24,000
174 at Rockland - about 15,000 (a guess?)

It is likely that a very large chunk of the traffic on all those routes are destined for Ottawa (as commuters or commercial traffic) and not driving through without stopping. There would be little benefit for a distant ring road. The through traffic on 417, for instance, would only warrant 2 lanes if all Ottawa-bound traffic was removed. AADT's on all those routes need to be over 30,000 (if not over 40,000) to warrant a distant ring road.

One that might work would be one connecting the existing suburban areas, by upgrading existing routes. That would draw more potential traffic.

[lrt's friend]

A ring road, another lame brain idea from our mayor that will go nowhere. Just how many billion will such a road cost? From a mayor advocating no tax increases, he really knows how to spend our money.

And then, he says we need an auto friendly city, while at the same time planning to spend billions on transit. Does he not realize that a road building scheme will compete with his transit plan?

Something tells me that his idea is to further cement the 2 car suburban culture and leave transit mainly to those who live within the minimal reach of his LRT Phase 1 plan.

So much for the concept of smart growth. A ring road will only accelerate suburban or even exurban sprawl. Smart growth is truly dead with O'Brien.

[c_speed3108]

I am curious what exactly he means by "a ring road". The original ring road plan is mostly already built. All it really needs is building or improving a few small roads like Trim and the Innes-Huntclub connector.

The main legs of the ring road plan like Hunt club, Innes, etc already exist.

This promise needs a map!

[Cre47]

If Hunt Club and Innes would be ring roads, that would be some really slow ring roads.

But O'Brien probably forgot to look at the potential cost of all of this. Assuming he wants to clear the downtown area, that ring road would have to pass beyond the suburbs connecting at the 417 twice and once on the 416 and the 7. Therefore it would start between Arnprior and the 417/7 junction, crossing the 7 west of Stittsville, passing the 416 south of Manotick, then back to the 417 near the Prescott & Russell line and then eventually north to near Rockland at the 174. But even with the ring road, unless he wants to add a massive string of employment areas along the corridor (which would likely mean moving quite some federal workers), downtown congestion will remain the same. Oh actually, since it might encourages even further sprawl in Kanata, Orleans and Barrhaven, it might be worse.

So this looks like just some pure fantasy and the chances to see that happening are smaller then the chances that downtown Ottawa would be hit by an F5 tornado or gets heavily damaged by an earthquake (like in New Zealand last weekend).

As for the cost, let's not talk about that, we know it will be much higher then the LRT/BRT network planned.

[adam-machiavelli]

That's one campaign promise I hope doesn't get fulfilled.

[waterloowarrior]

Sun: Andy Haydon to run for mayor (http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2010/09/09/15301341.html)

[DubberDom]

I'm on the opposite side on this "Ring Road", we need to plan for this now. Only 20% of commuters use public transit, that means 80% use roads and/or walk-bike. The $3Billion LRT-to-nowhere scheme only benefits those 20% that are already adequately served right now

The main justification for the ring road is to flow cross-town traffic away from the core, which will also serve to benefit commerce as well (think trucks!).

I had to drive to Manotick for a breakfast meeting this week from Orleans, there is no efficient route to get the except using the 417 through Downtown adding to traffic... how dumb is that?? Every other city of Ottawa's size has an outer ring road.

In order to make it worthwhile, I think the ring road should be built along the edge of the suburbs to maximize its usage. Starting with 417-416 cross connection would be a great start.

Most people on this board are Public Transit fixated, I get that, but I'm sure that in 20 years of so, the way we live and work will change so much that these LRTs investments will seem misplaced...


This is how the Ring Road should look...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4106/4976774712_44cf0e6abd_b.jpg

On first phase, you would only need grade separation from 416 to 417. You may only need a single lane at first from Highway 7 to bypass and one lane from 417 to Frank Kenny. There is no way to get a direct connection to Orleans due to the Mer Bleue Bog. The NCC would obviously be the big hurdle in this plan.

This would link up a direct Airport access from Stittsville/Kanata West to Orleans east, further reducing traffic along the parkway and Hunt Club.

I'm sure all you urbanists will be up in arms over my idea, bash away!!

[Kitchissippi]

I had to drive to Manotick for a breakfast meeting this week from Orleans, there is no efficient route to get the except using the 417 through Downtown adding to traffic... how dumb is that??

If you are taking the Queensway to get from Orleans to Manotick then you are really not using your noodle. A combination of Frank Kenny and Mitch Owens will get you there much faster.

A half serious idea for a ring road would not involve NCC land, especially the Greenbelt, otherwise, it's just like something dreamed up by this guy (http://www.bobthebuilder.com/ca/english/index.asp?origref=)

[Mille Sabords]

Sun: Andy Haydon to run for mayor (http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2010/09/09/15301341.html)

Surreal. No doubt, every possible transit angle will be covered in this election. No one will be able to say that there is no choice. This will be like the Super Bowl of municipal elections.

Faced with the prospect of finally becoming a real big city with a real rapid transit system, the electorate is:

1- reminded by a grumpy old man that we really don't deserve any better than buses, and we ought to be scolded for thinking otherwise. (May he be ridiculed and soundly defeated, and may we all have fun listening to him embarrass himself)

2- assured by a human-shaped piece of plastic wearing glasses that there should be absolutely no cost overruns, that we really should sharpen our pencils even more, and how dare we dream of subways when we're just, after all, Ottawa. Trains, ok, but hey, one century at a time here folks. Keep'em on the street. (May he treat this as another guy treated zero-means-zero: do it to get elected, then face reality)

3- tantalized (or offended) by the swagger of a private sector self-made man with good ideas, too much impatience, and an ability to say clumsy things - who also happens to be the sitting chief, the one who will have given Ottawa its first subway, Lansdowne, and worked hard on other great projects like a new central library, but then goes to say that we should be a "car-friendly city" and "we should reopn the urban boundary debate". Huh?

4- rightfully and righteously reminded that we all belong to mother earth, that we should all recycle, and that we should give the suburbs a train ride even though they don't have the density to justify the expense and even if it means that the downtown traffic jams will continue forever. May his ideas serve to remind us that we are all good inside and full of good intentions deep within.

Now, can I please have a candidate that can schmooze like #2, dream like #3, implement like #1 and apply the principles of #4 the right way without making us take 10 steps back every time we want to evolve?

:crazy2:

[Umpaidh]

Hey DubberDom, I don't want to get into the particulars of your job and where it takes you, but it sounds like these meetings in Manotick aren't an every day occurrence. For your next meeting, you might consider taking this route (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Orl%C3%A9ans,+Ottawa,+Ontario,+Canada&daddr=45.31732,-75.48004+to:manotick&hl=en&geocode=FWDCtQIdI1B_-ym9vlJolhHOTDHHdtQSbs78Pg%3BFch8swIdGESA-ylpFDsN2HTOTDHFUFN8ilf8ZA%3BFbYZsgIdLR59-ynv6FUweeTNTDHtv91mUbG0Ig&mra=mrv&mrcr=0&via=1&sll=45.3917,-75.517273&sspn=0.176244,0.307961&ie=UTF8&z=12). It would add 5 minutes to your trip, although really, when you include the traffic through the core, it would probably be quicker.

Also, it should be noted that the Strandherd/Armstrong bridge is currently being build just south of where you showed a bridge crossing the Rideau, which would help with the ability to get to the airport from the east and west.

I don't think the number of people who skirt around the city is large enough to make the idea of the ring road useful, and I can say this from experience (yes, which is anecdotal, my apologies). I live in Barrhaven and commute to Stittsville everyday, and my girlfriend commutes to just south of Orleans everyday. In the past two years, neither of us has ever had issues with traffic.

Also, what would be the cost of this road? It looks to be around 40km long, and for example, the 416 from Century road to the 417 (21km) was completed for $200 million between 1990 and 1997. When you include inflation, plus a bridge (Strandherd/Armstrong will cost $48 million for the bridge alone), the cost of this ring road gets pretty high, especially when it will only help a fraction of the population.

[DubberDom]

I took the Mitch Owens route to go back home... OMG, what a disaster, it actually took 10 minutes longer.

You guys are underestimating the actual demand for that 416-417 cross route. Try going from Orleans to Colonnade, Airport, Barrhaven or 416 from Orleans in rush hour

Anyway, I know I will not get support from this board since most readers are ideological urbanists who fail to understand that approximately 500,000 Ottawa residents live outside the Greenbelt

[bradnixon]

Hey DubberDom, I don't want to get into the particulars of your job and where it takes you, but it sounds like these meetings in Manotick aren't an every day occurrence. For your next meeting, you might consider taking this route (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Orl%C3%A9ans,+Ottawa,+Ontario,+Canada&daddr=45.31732,-75.48004+to:manotick&hl=en&geocode=FWDCtQIdI1B_-ym9vlJolhHOTDHHdtQSbs78Pg%3BFch8swIdGESA-ylpFDsN2HTOTDHFUFN8ilf8ZA%3BFbYZsgIdLR59-ynv6FUweeTNTDHtv91mUbG0Ig&mra=mrv&mrcr=0&via=1&sll=45.3917,-75.517273&sspn=0.176244,0.307961&ie=UTF8&z=12). It would add 5 minutes to your trip, although really, when you include the traffic through the core, it would probably be quicker.


I'm pretty sure this (http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Innes+Rd%2FRegional+Road+30&daddr=45.2586023,-75.670376+to:Manotick,+Ontario&hl=en&geocode=FQKqtQId0BiA-w%3BFWqXsgIdmFx9-yk7HX7eruPNTDGJv2SbgiwQ1A%3BFbYZsgIdLR59-ynv6FUweeTNTDHtv91mUbG0Ig&mra=dvme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=10&via=1&sll=45.35311,-75.573578&sspn=0.417868,0.832214&ie=UTF8&z=10)would be much faster.

We definitely don't need a ring road. We need the Strandherd Bridge to be built yesterday, but that should do us for years to come.

How many people are driving through Ottawa? I don't think there's that much Montreal-Pembroke traffic...

[bradnixon]

This is how the Ring Road should look...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4106/4976774712_44cf0e6abd_b.jpg


Congratulations... you've managed to route this thing right through the Leitrim Wetland and the Findlay Creek subdivision. Good luck with that...

[Kitchissippi]

I took the Mitch Owens route to go back home... OMG, what a disaster, it actually took 10 minutes longer.

OMG, ten full minutes?!?! Cancel the LRT and let's throw a billion dollars towards that problem.

[Proof Sheet]

2- assured by a human-shaped piece of plastic wearing glasses that there should be absolutely no cost overruns,


What a great description of a certain candidate whose CV has a lot of ducking and diving. I'm torn as to who to vote for and in many ways your summation of the main 4 candidates was spot on and matched much of my thinking...care to do a snapshot of the candidate who is now reduced to representing the constituants of Bay Ward to ensure that a candidate who doesn't represent the people of Bay Ward could get elected.

[Umpaidh]

I took the Mitch Owens route to go back home... OMG, what a disaster, it actually took 10 minutes longer.

You guys are underestimating the actual demand for that 416-417 cross route. Try going from Orleans to Colonnade, Airport, Barrhaven or 416 from Orleans in rush hour

Anyway, I know I will not get support from this board since most readers are ideological urbanists who fail to understand that approximately 500,000 Ottawa residents live outside the Greenbelt

I guess you missed the part where I said that the route is 5 minutes longer, and I am one of the residents living outside the Greenbelt who regularly (every day) travels from Barrhaven to Orleans, and Barrhaven to Stittsville?

[adam-machiavelli]

I encourage readers of this forum to attend mayoral debates and heckle Andy until he reveals the true intent of his campaign: his 'baby' (the Transitway) is growing up and he still sees her as a precious innocent little thing that can't be disturbed.

[DubberDom]

If the city does not have an effective plan for a ring road to the south in place now, then in 20 years we'll be scrambling and trying to figure out how to move people around, and the suburbs will all be developed around the perimeter of the city, stretching from Rockland, through Limoges to Embrun, Russell on the East and Carleton Place to Kemptville on the South West over to Arnprior because the city is run by urbanauts. Gatineau will also be smiling at Ottawa's ignorance.


Why trow $3Billion into LRT when it will actually increase the time it takes for a commuter to get downtown??

Back to teh topic, Andy Haydon is only entering this race to bring back BRT to the forefront to force Watson to re-consider the LRT as Ottawa's next mayor. Once Watson concedes this, watch Haydon drop out.

[c_speed3108]

If the city does not have an effective plan for a ring road to the south in place now, then in 20 years we'll be scrambling and trying to figure out how to move people around, and the suburbs will all be developed around the perimeter of the city, stretching from Rockland, through Limoges to Embrun, Russell on the East and Carleton Place to Kemptville on the South West over to Arnprior because the city is run by urbanauts. Gatineau will also be smiling at Ottawa's ignorance.


Why trow $3Billion into LRT when it will actually increase the time it takes for a commuter to get downtown??

Back to teh topic, Andy Haydon is only entering this race to bring back BRT to the forefront to force Watson to re-consider the LRT as Ottawa's next mayor. Once Watson concedes this, watch Haydon drop out.


I do believe as of the end of today the registered candidates will be on the ballot....

[Cre47]

O'Brien's plan for freezing taxes


By Randall Denley, The Ottawa Citizen September 10, 2010 2:44 PM


OTTAWA — The last time he ran for mayor, Larry O’Brien had a firm promise to freeze taxes and no real plan. This time, he has a more realistic promise and a plan that could work, if voters and councillors have the stomach for it.

In an eight-point plan to be released Saturday, O’Brien proposes a series of tough actions that could plausibly freeze your taxes, although the O’Brien plan will certainly cut services as well. The key elements are a two-year freeze on the city’s overall wage spending, freezing departmental budgets, freezing the taxpayer subsidy for OC Transpo and a “value for money” review of all city services.

O’Brien is further promising to use the dividends from the tough new approach for spending on “city-building projects.” The message is that O’Brien wants to restrain the cost of the city’s mundane services so we can afford to spend on city-enhancing initiatives like Lansdowne revitalization and light rail.

O’Brien is vowing to personally propose a tax-freeze budget, every year. That would replace the staff- and councillor-driven budget proposals of the past and it’s an appropriate responsibility for a mayor. Obviously wiser after a term in which zero really meant 14 per cent, O’Brien is not guaranteeing that council will accept a tax freeze. He is promising to lead the way toward that goal.

The key to O’Brien’s plan is freezing the city’s $1.26 billion wage budget. O’Brien is not intending, as was previously reported, to freeze workers’ pay. He will negotiate toward that goal, but it’s not something a candidate can guarantee.

The important point, O’Brien says, is that a tax freeze and a freeze in overall wage spending will give the city some leverage in union negotiations. Advertising a willingness to increase taxes 2.5 per cent, as opponent Jim Watson has, pretty much guarantees pay increases of that size for city employees, O’Brien argues. He says, “two and a half per cent is a very union-friendly number to pick.”

The mayor says he doesn’t want to freeze taxes simply for the sake of it, but to “drive change.” Faced with the prospect of job reductions, O’Brien hopes that the city unions will be more flexible on wages and working conditions.

Freezing the overall amount spent on compensation achieves the same bottom-line goal as a wage freeze, but it implies staff cuts. That will almost certainly mean service cuts, too.

The biggest squeeze would be on OC Transpo. O’Brien wants to hold the taxpayer subsidy at $175 million. That won’t keep costs from going up. What it would mean is less bus service, higher fares, or both.

Bus riders won’t like the consequences of O’Brien’s plan but it draws attention to a fact that city councillors have chosen to ignore. OC Transpo management is predicting that service expansion and wage costs will drive city taxes up 1.5 to two per cent a year, just for OC Transpo alone. O’Brien wants to hit the brakes.

Even with an overall wage freeze, achieving the target of zero won’t be automatic. Costs for police, fire and ambulance service go up every year. O’Brien has vowed to make those services a priority, so the implication of his plan is that city spending on other services will actually decline.

Perhaps the best part of O’Brien’s plan is his determination to smoke out city council candidates on their own budget plans. He has lined up a separate group to poll all the people running for council on whether they will support his tax-freeze plan. That will make it tougher for candidates to engage in the dodging and weaving they love so much.

Jim Watson clearly wants to make this an election about taxes and O’Brien’s failure to freeze them. Not that Watson could freeze them either, but that’s another story.

Having overpromised and underperformed, it will be difficult for O’Brien to regain credibility on taxes but he has to do it to have a hope of re-election. O’Brien needs to persuade the public that when it comes to taxes, he’s still 120 proof and Jim Watson’s just a spritzer.

The plan the mayor will unveil Saturday ought to achieve that goal. This time, O’Brien has identified plausible ways to freeze taxes and he can certainly produce a budget that will achieve that goal. Whether the details will be palatable to council or the public is another matter. People like to believe that taxes can be frozen without cutting services. That’s just not the case. O’Brien knows that, now, and his new goal is to be the guy who tries hardest to get to a low number. Realistically, that’s the best anyone can do.

Contact Randall Denley at 596-3756 or by e-mail, rdenley@thecitizen.canwest.com

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[lrt's friend]

I'm pretty sure this (http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Innes+Rd%2FRegional+Road+30&daddr=45.2586023,-75.670376+to:Manotick,+Ontario&hl=en&geocode=FQKqtQId0BiA-w%3BFWqXsgIdmFx9-yk7HX7eruPNTDGJv2SbgiwQ1A%3BFbYZsgIdLR59-ynv6FUweeTNTDHtv91mUbG0Ig&mra=dvme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=10&via=1&sll=45.35311,-75.573578&sspn=0.417868,0.832214&ie=UTF8&z=10)would be much faster.

We definitely don't need a ring road. We need the Strandherd Bridge to be built yesterday, but that should do us for years to come.

How many people are driving through Ottawa? I don't think there's that much Montreal-Pembroke traffic...

When you think of it, the Strandherd Bridge is the first component of a new ring road. It was not so long ago that the Hunt Club Road bridge opened. If you remember back then, Hunt Club only ran from Prince of Wales to Bank Street. It was gradually extended east and west.

As I have said, a true limited access ring road will be very costly and will just encourage low density sprawl beyond the urban boundaries. Inevitably, every route into the city will be negatively impacted as most traffic will be in that direction rather than following the ring road.

[lrt's friend]

O'Brien's plan for freezing taxes


By Randall Denley, The Ottawa Citizen September 10, 2010 2:44 PM


OTTAWA — The last time he ran for mayor, Larry O’Brien had a firm promise to freeze taxes and no real plan. This time, he has a more realistic promise and a plan that could work, if voters and councillors have the stomach for it.

In an eight-point plan to be released Saturday, O’Brien proposes a series of tough actions that could plausibly freeze your taxes, although the O’Brien plan will certainly cut services as well. The key elements are a two-year freeze on the city’s overall wage spending, freezing departmental budgets, freezing the taxpayer subsidy for OC Transpo and a “value for money” review of all city services.

O’Brien is further promising to use the dividends from the tough new approach for spending on “city-building projects.” The message is that O’Brien wants to restrain the cost of the city’s mundane services so we can afford to spend on city-enhancing initiatives like Lansdowne revitalization and light rail.

O’Brien is vowing to personally propose a tax-freeze budget, every year. That would replace the staff- and councillor-driven budget proposals of the past and it’s an appropriate responsibility for a mayor. Obviously wiser after a term in which zero really meant 14 per cent, O’Brien is not guaranteeing that council will accept a tax freeze. He is promising to lead the way toward that goal.

The key to O’Brien’s plan is freezing the city’s $1.26 billion wage budget. O’Brien is not intending, as was previously reported, to freeze workers’ pay. He will negotiate toward that goal, but it’s not something a candidate can guarantee.

The important point, O’Brien says, is that a tax freeze and a freeze in overall wage spending will give the city some leverage in union negotiations. Advertising a willingness to increase taxes 2.5 per cent, as opponent Jim Watson has, pretty much guarantees pay increases of that size for city employees, O’Brien argues. He says, “two and a half per cent is a very union-friendly number to pick.”

The mayor says he doesn’t want to freeze taxes simply for the sake of it, but to “drive change.” Faced with the prospect of job reductions, O’Brien hopes that the city unions will be more flexible on wages and working conditions.

Freezing the overall amount spent on compensation achieves the same bottom-line goal as a wage freeze, but it implies staff cuts. That will almost certainly mean service cuts, too.

The biggest squeeze would be on OC Transpo. O’Brien wants to hold the taxpayer subsidy at $175 million. That won’t keep costs from going up. What it would mean is less bus service, higher fares, or both.

Bus riders won’t like the consequences of O’Brien’s plan but it draws attention to a fact that city councillors have chosen to ignore. OC Transpo management is predicting that service expansion and wage costs will drive city taxes up 1.5 to two per cent a year, just for OC Transpo alone. O’Brien wants to hit the brakes.

Even with an overall wage freeze, achieving the target of zero won’t be automatic. Costs for police, fire and ambulance service go up every year. O’Brien has vowed to make those services a priority, so the implication of his plan is that city spending on other services will actually decline.

Perhaps the best part of O’Brien’s plan is his determination to smoke out city council candidates on their own budget plans. He has lined up a separate group to poll all the people running for council on whether they will support his tax-freeze plan. That will make it tougher for candidates to engage in the dodging and weaving they love so much.

Jim Watson clearly wants to make this an election about taxes and O’Brien’s failure to freeze them. Not that Watson could freeze them either, but that’s another story.

Having overpromised and underperformed, it will be difficult for O’Brien to regain credibility on taxes but he has to do it to have a hope of re-election. O’Brien needs to persuade the public that when it comes to taxes, he’s still 120 proof and Jim Watson’s just a spritzer.

The plan the mayor will unveil Saturday ought to achieve that goal. This time, O’Brien has identified plausible ways to freeze taxes and he can certainly produce a budget that will achieve that goal. Whether the details will be palatable to council or the public is another matter. People like to believe that taxes can be frozen without cutting services. That’s just not the case. O’Brien knows that, now, and his new goal is to be the guy who tries hardest to get to a low number. Realistically, that’s the best anyone can do.

Contact Randall Denley at 596-3756 or by e-mail, rdenley@thecitizen.canwest.com

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen


We better be very aware of the impact of doing something like this.

First of all, freezing departmental budgets takes decisions directly out of the hands of City Council and places it in the hands of the bureaucrats. We will not necessarily see improvements in efficiency because they are always more difficult to achieve. The result will be service cuts. Remember back around 6 or 7 years ago when an austerity budget was passed and what happened. There were irrational bus route cuts, and city looked like a disgusting mess because parks and roadsides were not being maintained.

Doing this for 4 years, will result almost certainly in a cross the board 10% service cut. Whether bus service, garbage collection, park maintenance, snow removal, police, fire and library services etc. If there are some exemptions, the cuts in the affected departments will be even higher. And then to justify these cuts to cover the cost of big ticket items will be a bitter pill to swallow.

And what do you do in the next 4 years? This is not sustainable.

I am of the opinion that there should be a reasonable inflationary increase each year so that services are sustainable and consistent. You look for efficiencies within City Hall at all times by getting councillors working with staff. By all means, cut services that are no longer a priority but across the board cuts end up cutting both the fat and the muscle.

[adam-machiavelli]

The real problem is the limited power of municipalities to levy taxes. If they had greater autonomy, they could increase their revenues without depending solely on property taxes.

[reidjr]

I encourage readers of this forum to attend mayoral debates and heckle Andy until he reveals the true intent of his campaign: his 'baby' (the Transitway) is growing up and he still sees her as a precious innocent little thing that can't be disturbed.

I hope people don't just to heckle.Yers people should go and ask questions people should not go and turn the debates into a side show.

[Cre47]

Mayor promises to write city budget himself if re-elected


Larry O'Brien has promised to write the city's budget himself, if re-elected as Mayor in a press conference in which he outlined an eight-point plan, Sept. 11, 2010.


OTTAWA — If re-elected mayor of Ottawa, Larry O’Brien has a plan for taking the pressure off councillors: he’ll write the budget himself.

“The buck stops with the mayor,” O’Brien said Saturday morning as he outlined his eight-point plan on city spending previously reported in the Citizen. “The mayor should put the budget out.”

O’Brien somewhat reformed the budget proceeding last year by bringing in consultant Bob Plamondon to oversee the process, taking input and suggestions from councillors and then drafting a spending plan for council to debate. The final result of that process was a property tax increase of about four per cent.

But if voters return him to the helm of city council on Oct. 25, O’Brien said his office will be responsible for crafting the entire budget, which can then be debated— and changed — by council.

This process would help O’Brien keep his campaign promise of a “goal,” but not a promise of zero tax increases, as he did with his now infamous “zero means zero” slogan from the 2006 election.

“Life changes, things happen,” said O’Brien, adding that he’d be open to increases if there was “a good reason” to do so, such to as increase public security and safety or the prosperity of citizens.

He’s even asking the current council to say ahead of the election whether it supports his budget plan.

In an e-mail to councillors Saturday, O’Brien wrote that “as the only candidate with a city-wide mandate, the Mayor’s office should — in consultation with committee chair and with the support of staff — submit the budget to council. That way we will have a single starting point, rather than competing plans at the table.”

In the e-mail, he explains that he believes the budget discussions must start from a zero increase basis, instead of a “wish-list budget,” which council has to then pare down.

O’Brien ends by asking for councillors’ “support on the above two points as a reasonable and prudent way to establish control over the $2.5 billion that the City spends every year.”

The mayor said he doesn’t expect responses from councillors for a week or two, but the strategy is part of the O’Brien team’s plan to identify candidates who would support him on his financial plans.

O’Brien has often complained that he is “just one vote” on council, which is why he has not been able to implement some of his goals, including a transit commission to oversee OC Transpo, an idea he has revived for this campaign.

He wants voters to elect like-minded councillors so he can “get the job done.” To help voters identify them, O’Brien said a couple of outside organizations — he declined to say who they were — were planning to post lists of candidates who have signed on to the mayor’s plan.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[lrt's friend]

O’Brien has often complained that he is “just one vote” on council, which is why he has not been able to implement some of his goals

Like substantial service cuts that will be needed to achieve a 0% tax increase.

I don't trust this man, given the whacky ideas that keep coming out of his mouth.

Given the City Council did not like what he was doing with the budget in the past, why would City Council want to give him this power? If I were them, I would not touch this proposal with a ten foot pole.

It seemed like with most significant issues, City Councillors had to take action on their own in order to bring things to a reasonable conclusion including items that Larry O'Brien is now taking credit. Why would this suddenly change?

[Cre47]

Anyone saw Lex's video today. Unable to post the video there but will link however.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Brien+launches+election+video/3516432/story.html

[Ottawan]

While hilariously ridiculous as expected, his slogan "action over politics" is a good one against Watson. Watson is a career politician who hasn't achieved anything while in politics other than to avoid scandal.

*sigh* Now that the rolls are closed and we have all our candidates, I actually have to consider which one of these poor options I vote for. I wish this were 2006 again, when either Bob Chiarelli or Alex Munter would have made fine mayors. Now, O'Brien seems about as good as the rest.

[eternallyme]

Any thought of contracting out bus service (on the condition that routes cannot be cut unless approved by council in full consultation)?

[Ottawan]

Any thought of contracting out bus service (on the condition that routes cannot be cut unless approved by council in full consultation)?

The problem with this is that the city would face two scenarios:

1) we contract out the full system, in which case there are few contractors able to fulfill such demand, and those that are can only do so if the contract is on a long enough term basis for them to acquire the necessary buses, employees, and other infrastructure/expertise. As a result, after the initial tender we would be hostage to whatever price that contractor demanded, as it is unlikely others would want to expend the required expense to be a true contender. We would probably pay less initially, but more in the long term.

2) we contract out on a route-by-route basis, in which case the routes that are not profitable end up with no tenders, and the city must either only run those routes which cost it the most, or give them up altogether and fail to provide transit to a large number of constituents.

[waterloowarrior]

There are 20 candidates for mayor.... vs 7-9 the first three elections since amalgamation

[Suzie]

The problem with this is that the city would face two scenarios:

1) we contract out the full system, in which case there are few contractors able to fulfill such demand, and those that are can only do so if the contract is on a long enough term basis for them to acquire the necessary buses, employees, and other infrastructure/expertise. As a result, after the initial tender we would be hostage to whatever price that contractor demanded, as it is unlikely others would want to expend the required expense to be a true contender. We would probably pay less initially, but more in the long term.

2) we contract out on a route-by-route basis, in which case the routes that are not profitable end up with no tenders, and the city must either only run those routes which cost it the most, or give them up altogether and fail to provide transit to a large number of constituents.

How do they do it in London (UK), Australian cities and Scandinavian countries, among other places?