Three and a half weeks after nominations opened for this fall's municipal election, incumbent Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has officially registered as a candidate in a bid to win a second term.
But on the same day, municipal governance advocacy group Horizon Ottawa filed a complaint with the city’s integrity commissioner over ads Sutcliffe has been running in community newspapers, which they say read more as campaign material than a message from the mayor's office.
The ads in question were published in the OSCAR newspaper and list some of Sutcliffe’s priorities and accomplishments from the past four years, including keeping taxes low, hiring more first responders, investing in transit, and ending youth homelessness by 2030. It also includes a QR Code to his newsletter and the slogan “moving Ottawa forward” — borrowed from Bob Chiarelli’s failed mayoral campaign back in 2022.
Sam Hersh, a board member of Horizon Ottawa, said he found the ad unfair because taxpayer dollars funded it. He believes it breaches section 14 of the Code of Conduct, which prohibits council members from using city resources for election-related activity outside election periods.
“We know it’s a grey area. There's some subjectivity there, but there is a different difference in tone and candour compared to what Sutcliffe put in community newspapers outside of the election period,” Hersh told the Lookout. “The ads look like they're forward-facing commitments and promises rather than talking about things that he's done as mayor.”
Sutcliffe told reporters he checked with the city clerk, who said the ads were fine to publish. City clerk Caitlin Salter MacDonald confirmed to CBC News that she doesn’t think the ads violated the rules.
As last year was ending, Salter MacDonald sent a memo to elected officials reminding them of what is and isn’t allowed, noting “public funds and resources are not to be used for any election-related purposes, including the promotion of or opposition to the candidacy of a person for elected office.”
In the past, it was fairly routine for councillors to use their office budgets near election season to put out literature highlighting what they’ve done for their ward constituents.
As an example, Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster sent out literature which said representing her area “is the greatest honour of her life” and that she is “just getting started.” It included a list of files she has been championing, including housing and homelessness, the ANCHOR program, and cycling infrastructure, among other things.
The Mayor said he intends to continue serving until the campaign blackout period begins 60 days before voting day. Sutcliffe said he even used his lunch hour to file his nomination papers, rather than during work hours. In his opinion, the story is a non-issue.
A copy of the ad that ran in the Oscar newspaper.
“This is normal stuff. Every elected official advertises so that people know what they’ve been up to,” said Sutcliffe. “This is the registration period— not the election period. I continue to be the mayor of Ottawa during this entire period."
If an election rule breach occurred, it could result in a personal repayment of costs.
The campaign is still months away, says Sutcliffe
Over the past few months, Sutcliffe has seemingly held more press conferences and taken more media availabilities than he has in the past.
His branding was front and centre when plans were announced to revitalize the ByWard Market. He even made announcements about increased security downtown, announced funding for new cricket pitches across the city, and was a strong champion of the controversial Lansdowne 2.0 project.
Those maneuvers — which are technically allowed under election laws because they are being done in Sutcliffe’s capacity as mayor — have been noticed by the other candidates running to unseat Sutcliffe in the Mayor's chair.
On May 1, when registration opened, the three big names each filed their papers: homebuilder Alex Lawson, economist Neil Saravanamuttoo, and three-term Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper.
Over the weekend before Sutcliffe filed, Lawson posted a video criticizing him for not filing sooner. He pointed out that the videos posted by himself and the other candidates were paid for through their campaigns, whereas the mayor's messaging was developed by his city staff.
One such video was of Sutcliffe walking around the Great Glebe Garage Sale on May 23, where he shook hands and met with police and business owners. Another was during Tamarack Race Weekend, where he ran his own unofficial race before the event, raising over $117,000 for the End Youth Homelessness Fund.
Saravanamuttoo also sees it as an unfair advantage, saying that community newspaper ads should stop as well.
Youth homelessness has been a key part of Sutcliffe’s messaging recently. In early May, he announced the launch of a “youth homelessness champions table” to accelerate the goal of ensuring no youth are living on the streets by 2030.
Sutcliffe, too, was then asked if making such an announcement was giving himself an unfair advantage, but he insisted it wasn’t campaigning.
“I don’t know why you would consider this a campaign-style event,” he said. “You know, there are no balloons.”
Lawson is associated with trucker convoy
When Alex Lawson first announced he’d be entering the mayor's race during the winter, there was lots of optimism from the anti-Sutcliffe crowd that he was the missing puzzle piece to unseat the incumbent — something that’s very hard to do.
Pollsters and political pundits had hoped Lawson could pull a Larry O’Brien maneuver from the 2006 race, when the seemingly unknown candidate climbed in the polls.
O’Brien had originally been polling in third but climbed to second after Terry Kilrea dropped out of the race, and his supporters moved over. Days before the election, he polled first, ahead of former Kanata Councillor Alex Munter, who had been seen as the likely winner until then. O’Brien went on to win with 47 per cent of the vote — 30,000 more votes than Munter.
He ended up being a one-term wonder after his four years were filled with controversy and scandal. Jim Watson was then elected in 2010.
Lawson said previously he is running his campaign as a centrist candidate, though his background is more right-leaning — especially after serving on the Kanata Carleton Conservative riding association.
During his campaign launch on Saturday, Lawson told his crowd of supporters that he helped deliver portable toilets downtown during the so-called “freedom” trucker convoy.
The Lookout reached out to Lawson for an interview about his campaign platform and his previous comments, but he said he was too busy preparing for his daughter's birthday. Lawson's campaign team told CBC the restrooms were dropped off on the streets at the beginning of the convoy without coordination with any groups.
During the convoy, Lawson made various Facebook posts that appeared to oppose the lockdowns. In one screenshot obtained by Lookout, Lawson went after Vera Etches, who was Ottawa Public Health’s top doctor at the time.
“I’m sure a person who made an extra $110k last year would love to see us go back to the old way of living,” he said sarcastically. “This unelected 'expert' now controls our every move.”
Another post was a meme showing an African man trying to fill a laundry basket with water, but it had gaps. “Gonna trust government as soon as I fill this bucket,” it read.
In a Facebook comment exchange, one person wrote that they were preparing by keeping food and resources on standby, noting that a “revolution” was needed to stop the control. A poster was attached promoting a “worldwide rally for freedom” to be held on Parliament Hill on Jan. 22, 2022.
Lawson replied by saying, “Everyone is f-ing sleeping here. People think that because they've been vaccinated, they’ve done their part, and everything will be fine… How the f-ck does stopping truckers make any sense at all?”
One of the memes Alex Lawson reposted at the time of the trucker convoy in Jan. 2022.
A few days later, on Jan. 30, 2022, Lawson shared a meme from “Being Libertarian -Canada” that depicted Liberals as not supporting the trucker convoy but supporting LGBTQ2S rights. It showed the rapper Drake giving the hand to a statue of Terry Fox with the sign “mandate freedom,” but positively pointing to a picture of a Liberal MP posing with a statue of Terry Fox, holding a pride flag.
Lawson told CBC in a separate interview that while he supports people’s right to protest, the convoy “went too far” and later “became an occupation.”
Where polling stands
In 2022, Sutcliffe won with a narrow majority of 51 per cent of the vote.
It was a successful first campaign for the former journalist and businessman who entered the race late in September. He, at the time, was up against the well-liked Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney and Bob Chiarelli, who have served as mayor before.
Sutcliffe’s predecessor, Jim Watson, won his first election back as mayor in 2010 with 48.7 per cent of the vote against the incumbent O’Brien. He later took 76.2 per cent of the vote in 2014 and 71 per cent in 2018.
It could be challenging for Sutcliffe to do the same.
While he is seen as the likely winning candidate, polls show there are gaps for other contenders to try to break through. A Liaison Strategies poll conducted for iPolitics and the Ottawa Compass surveyed 1,000 voters at random and found that Sutcliffe was the top choice for 37 per cent of voters. Leiper came in a close second with 33 per cent, and Lawson in third at 14 per cent. Saravanamuttoo trailed behind with about five per cent.
Sutcliffe’s likely main contender is Leiper, who knows his way around city hall. He’s recently served as chair of the planning and housing committee and has sat around the council table for the last 12 years.
It was no secret that Leiper had not intended to seek a fourth council term, but had decided to throw his hat into the mayor's race after being discontent with the state of transit and overall city governance.
For Leiper to reach ahead and perhaps win, he first needs to attract the same votes McKenney took in 2022. Both McKenney and Leiper are friends and run on similar left-leaning platforms.
McKenney won a greater vote share in five wards: Their home ward of Somerset, neighbouring Kitchissippi, Capital Ward, Rideau-Vanier, and Rideau-Rockcliffe.
One path for Leiper to win is to pick up votes in wards where McKenney lost by only a few percentage points, such as Bay Ward and River Ward.
Lawson could also be a benefit to left-leaning candidates if he’s able to pull support from Sutcliffe in wards where he historically does well, such as Barrhaven, Kanata, Rideau-Jock, and Osgoode. Many voters in Barrhaven and Kanata, for example, were displeased with Sutcliffe over his handling of the Sprung-structure debate, when tent-like structures were to be built in their communities to house newcomers.
To Sutcliffe’s advantage, having Leiper and Saravanamuttoo as left-leaning candidates could split the vote — especially if Saravanamuttoo can double his current poll projections.
The Liaison poll found that Sutcliffe was polling at 41 per cent in terms of an approval rating, which is down four percentage points compared to April. Also, only one in four Ottawa residents reported saying they thought the city was heading in the right direction.
When Sutcliffe spoke to reporters outside the city’s election office, he acknowledged that work still isn’t done and said the city is left cleaning up the “mess” left by his predecessors.
Part of that plan will be keeping yearly tax increases low. Toronto has increased its taxes by 22 per cent over the last four years, with Vancouver increasing theirs by 25 per cent. In Ottawa, increases have averaged around three per cent yearly.
Some of the other mayoral candidates are expected to champion higher taxes, perhaps, feeling the city doesn’t have enough money to finance what it needs.
A report on the City's Long Range Financial Plan is going to the Committee next week. It is expected to highlight the challenges of maintaining aging infrastructure and of renewing community centres.
Sutcliffe said he doesn’t think raising taxes is a popular idea.
"Residents are worried about rising costs, about job cuts and about public safety. At a time like this, we can’t afford to make a U-turn and go back to the way things were four years ago. We can’t afford risky ideas that will lead to huge tax increases,” he said.
