Ottawa Mayoral Race

Well, there's a new poll in that bastion of truth the Ottawa Citizen this morning. It places Larry O'Brien in a commanding lead with Alex Munter second and incumbent mayor Bob Chiarelli a distant third.

Here's a bit about the candidates:

Larry O'Brien: Former businessman from Silicon Valley North. He is running on a platform to freeze taxes, spend $450 million on new incinerators, spend more on roads, social services and child care. Generally seen as the fiscally conservative candidate.

Alex Munter is a former city councillor, NDP candidate, and U of O lecturer. Munter is campaigning on raising taxes at the rate of inflation, expand wi-fi access, close the Carp and Navan dumps and cut fees for parks and recs. He is calling for borough councils which have been a disaster in Montreal since it went to one city. Clearly, based on his record and campaign promises is the tax and spend candidate.

Bob Chiarelli: Incumbent mayor and former MPP. Chiarelli is running on his record, claiming that Ottawa is acknowledged as one of the best cities in the world in which to live. He points to decraesed crime, a strong economy, the vibrant arts community. He has the baggage of an incumbent and is running on the expanded light rail project. Chiarelli has the most functional LRT plan of all three candidates and I like the way he stood up to John Baird's meddling.

The Ottawa Citizen Editorial Board Endorsed Bob Chiarelli

While I have not followed this campaign as closely as I had the US mid-terms, I will defer in my analysis to Friday's Citizen editorial.

It attested to Chiarelli's leadership in moments of crisis: "Mr. Chiarelli rose to the occasion for the 1998 ice storm and the 2003 blackout.”

As for the other candidates, the Editorial Board stated: “former Kanata councillor has long been known as a powerful voice for the political left. The labour unions adore him, so much so that some in the PSAC had raised the idea of paying its members to work on his campaign.”

On Munter's policy platform, the Citizen wrote; “[w]e are wary of his instinctive attraction to big government. He's calling for borough councils, which seems a step backward from the whole premise of amalgamation, which was to reduce government.” On light rail, they say: "irrespective if you are for or against, Mr. Munter's program does not take the train downtown, which is where people want to go. And Mr. Munter backs a tunnel, which would be prohibitively expensive.”

The editorial board is critical of Larry O’Brien who they state lacks even a cursory knowledge of the key issues at the City. They sayMr. O’Brien refused to answer the Editorial Board's policy questions “…what city services would he eliminate to keep tax increases at zero? He wouldn't tell us. Why is there little business development in the east end? He wouldn't speculate. His position on light rail? Impossible to discern.”

Having seen all this, despite his low ranking in the polls, I will be casting my vote for incumbent mayor Bob Chiarelli.