The municipal election is over in under 48 hours. It’s been one of the biggest journalistic undertakings by our team here at the Lookout.
Over the last few months, Sarah and our freelancer team have crisscrossed Ottawa, speaking with voters, interviewing candidates and listening to what matters most to residents.
From transit and housing to intensification, protecting greenspace, community safety, homelessness and infrastructure concerns following the Canada Day floods, one thing has become clear: The decisions made at city hall have an enormous impact on our daily lives. In many ways, municipal politics affects us more directly than any other level of government.
Yet municipal issues don’t always receive the attention they deserve from mainstream media. And at the Ottawa Lookout, we’ve spent the last few years working to fill that gap. And this election has been no exception.
I’ve personally conducted more than two dozen election-related interviews, with Sarah and Amanda completing roughly two dozen more. That’s nearly 50 interviews, not including the countless hours spent speaking with sources, researching platforms and digging into the issues behind the scenes.
On Friday morning, I was back on the campaign trail, first joining Mark Sutcliffe at Mooney’s Bay Beach for a campaign announcement, then heading downtown to hear Jeff Leiper outline his plans for Orléans.
These have been long days and late nights, but we believe this work matters.
At the beginning of our coverage, we set a goal of 90 new members by Oct. 26, to fund all the coverage you read. We’re still short of that goal with tomorrow’s deadline getting closer…
It matters because the journalism that Sarah, I, and our entire team do is reader-funded. We cannot do this without your support. Not hitting our goal means we have to make some tough decisions this fall and winter.
With a close mayoral contest and pollsters describing this as potentially one of Ottawa’s most consequential municipal elections in over a decade, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
After the results are finalized, we’ll publish our comprehensive election guide, breaking down the key races, who’s running, and what the leading mayoral candidates are promising. On election night, our team will once again be out covering the results as they come in, with a detailed wrap-up to follow. We will also look at what’s to come over the next four years with whoever sits around the council table.
We do this for one simple reason — our cities and our lives are better off when we have access to information, and understand the stakes, issues and forces shaping our lives.
That’s harder these days as local journalists in Ottawa and across Canada are laid off and as big media companies spend more on AI instead of the people who make journalism possible.
We’re a small team doing everything we can to ensure Ottawa residents have the information they need before heading to the polls. And we simply couldn’t do it without our readers' support.
If you’ve found our election coverage valuable, please consider becoming a paid Ottawa Lookout member before tomorrow at midnight to save 30% off a membership. Your support directly helps us continue to ask tough questions, hold elected officials accountable, and tell the stories that matter to our city.
Thank you for reading, for supporting local journalism and, most importantly, for caring about Ottawa’s future.
— Charlie Senack, managing editor, Ottawa Lookout
Food and drink editor Ralf Joneikies, managing editor Charlie Senack and reporter and senior editor Sarah MacFarlane-Youngdale
