In or Out ?

There has been a lot of chatter online and in the media about whether or not Mayor Sutcliffe should be filing his nomination papers. Everyone from current councillors to media folks to online armchair quarterbacks are saying that he is campaigning on the taxpayers’ dollar. The Mayor says he is just doing his job and in a city the size of Ottawa there is a lot going on from proposed transit fixes to supporting a bid to make Ottawa a new defence hub to celebrating our 200th birthday.

An election while inevitable and necessary every four years does not magically put everything on hold in the city nor should it. Our representatives are elected to do their jobs for 4 years and not one day less. As a sitting elected official “stuff” keeps happening around you and needs to be addressed . I will always remember juggling being the sitting Councillor and a candidate in the 2018 election while responding to the devastation brought on by the tornado in my ward. Yes I was in the media, yes I was making announcements and yes I was using my social media channels to support my community but I was also doing my job. Not everything is as immediate or impactful as responding to a natural disaster but there are a lot of things both big and small that need to be addressed on a daily basis to keep our city humming along.

It is also very interesting to me that all the attention seems to be fixated on the Mayor and not the 10 wards as of today where incumbents have not filed their nomination papers despite having been quite public about running this year to hang onto their seats. Some of these very same Councillors have raised concerns about whether the Mayor is currently campaigning . Newsletters are still going out, social media posts are happening and public events are being attended and publicized . Are these folks campaigning or just doing their jobs? It will be up to you to decide at the ballot box.