There's an Ottawa city council by-election in Rideau-Rockcliffe ward today. To kill time, I've done some canvassing for a candidate here (even though I don't live in the ward).
Located in eastern Ottawa, the ward has
a fairly strange shape. There are sharp socioeconomic differences between some of the neighbourhoods included in this ward, from affluent parts like Rockcliffe Park (the wealthiest part of Ottawa) and New Edinburgh to low-income areas like Overbrook. Around 27% of the population is Francophone and 28% are visible minorities. It is a predominantly 'urban' (as opposed to suburban) type of ward, although there are some more suburban areas. Its politics tend to be centre-left liberal/progressive, and most candidates in this by-election generally fit the mould, although there are differences between more outright left-leaning progressives and wishy-washy centrist liberals.
There are no less than 17 candidates running in the by-election, up from just 2 last year (when the incumbent was reelected with 80%). It had the lowest turnout of any ward in 2018, at 37.2%. The candidates are:
Kasia Adamiec: Young woman who I believe is/was a federal civil servant, and has served on a bunch of police/crime-related community organizations and committees. Appears to be moderately centre-right, with fairly boring and unambitious proposals (it seems her top environmental promise is 'composting program in high-rises & condos', so yeah). Randomly endorsed by former Etobicoke Centre Conservative MP Ted Opitz.
Idris Ben-Tahir: Doesn't have any online presence, but unsuccessfully ran for mayor (2010), city council, school board and the federal Tory nomination in Ottawa Centre (2006). Was in the news in 2015 for losing a claim for a disability award from a hazing incident in the RCAF in 1965.
Marc Dorgeville: Financial counsellor and former engineer. Left-wing and green/environmentalist, his top priorities are climate change and poverty. He's also a Francophone, and is also focusing on that. I've done some canvassing with him during the campaign.
Bruce A. Faulkner: Truck driver. Ran for the provincial Libertarian Party in Ottawa Centre in 2014 and 2018, probably the most right-wing candidate.
Johan Hamels: Originally from Belgium (Flanders), he was active in the green party in Flanders and with the federal Green Party in Canada. Obviously a centre-left progressive, focusing on climate change and affordable housing. He is also a Francophone, and has thorough policy planks on Francophone rights and issues.
Peter Heyck: The other candidate in 2018 (who got less than 20% against the incumbent). Has a Twitter account, but doesn't seem to have any kind of platform.
Miklos Horvath: Former (?) civil servant, bilingual. Appears somewhat progressive, and his platform largely laments the poor quality of public services received by residents (esp. transit).
Peter Jan Karwacki: Claims that he would continue outgoing city councillor Tobi Nussbaum's policies, and says the top 2 issues are gang violence and the 'ever-increasing burden on taxpayers of the cost of LRT'.
Rawlson King: President of the Overbrook community association. Explicitly left-wing progressive candidate, and 'unofficial' NDP candidate (endorsed by Ottawa Centre NDP MPP Joel Harden, as well as left/NDP-leaning city councillors Catherine McKenney and Shawn Menard, and school trustees Lyra Evans and Chris Ellis, as well as 2010/2018 left-leaning mayoral candidate Clive Doucet). Has proposals including inclusionary zoning, electoral reform (ranked voting), transit fare freeze, declaring a climate change emergency and a city-wide handgun/assault weapons ban.
Jerry Kovacs: Lawyer, former professor. His top 2 issues are municipal services/infrastructure and community engagement.
Jamie Kwong: Former executive director of the Vanier BIA executive director, she is the main 'pro-business' liberal in the race. Repeats the words 'business leader' a lot. Endorsed by former Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert and former city councillor Bob Monette.
Maurice Lamirande: Old guy who ran for the PCs in Ottawa-Vanier in 1999 and 2003 and was a two-term school trustee on the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est. Says he will 'your voice at the table' a lot. Campaign platform seems generic.
Patrick Mayangi: Carleton University grad. I had a class with him a few years ago, seemed like a nice enough guy. Campaign seems to focus a lot on platitudes and empty catchphrases, which sound nice but don't actually mean anything.
Oriana Ngabirano: Reputation manager and public relations specialist. Platform seems to be pretty generic and boring.
Chris Penton: Business development manager. His platform appears fairly centrist and 'pro-business'.
Sheila Perry: Teacher, president of the Federation of Community Associations of Ottawa and president of the Ottawa Council of Women, former president of the Overbrook Community Association. She ran in this ward in 2014. Endorsed by city councillor Jeff Leiper and former city councillor Marianne Wilkinson. Moderately centre-left liberal.
Penny Thompson: President of the Manor Park Community Association. She is officially supported by former Liberal MPP Madeleine Meilleur and former (right-leaning) city councillor Peter D. Clark. I've also heard she is unofficially 'supported' by the mayor, Jim Watson. It makes sense: like him, she's a boring centrist with very unambitious and generic policy goals.
Given such a large field, the winner will probably have a small majority and a low plurality of the vote. I may be entirely wrong, but from my impression of the campaign, I'd wager that the favourites/strongest candidates are: Jamie Kwong, Rawlson King, Penny Thompson, Sheila Perry and maybe Marc Dorgeville and Kasia Adamiec. I won't even try to predict who will win.
