By Neala Barton
Incumbent Diane Holmes faced a barrage of questions last week as Somerset Ward city council candidates squared off in their first and only debate before the Nov. 13 municipal election.
In what amounted to nearly a two-and-a-half hour interrogation, Holmes’s four opponents took her to task on her past decisions about safety, transit, development, taxes and questioned her accountability.
“Diane Holmes believes she is the queen of Ward 14,” claimed George Guirguis, a man who has made it his mission to dethrone her.
The evening quickly escalated to a shouting match when candidate Luc Lapointe demanded to know why Holmes had voted for the ever-controversial light-rail project without first reading the contract.
“Tell us what you know, tell us what you didn’t know, and tell us why you signed this contract,” Lapointe demanded during the forum organized by Centretown News.
“Councillors do not sign contracts, councillors set budgets,” Holmes shot back.
Still, those who had come to watch the debate wanted further explanation.
“Answer the question!” they yelled.
But Holmes had moved on, turning the tables on Lapointe.
“What is your answer to solving the commuter problem?” she asked pointedly.
Making reference to a group of businesses on Albert Street who had opposed the light rail project, Lapointe stressed that he would have listened to concerned voices before he signed a contract.
“You haven’t answered the question about what is the solution,” Holmes replied.
But someone from the audience intervened before Lapointe could open his mouth, yelling: “That is a solution. Listen to the people.”
And as the debate progressed, the questions for Holmes kept coming.
“Do you feel sorry for what you did to senior citizens?” asked Guirguis.
Guirguis accused Holmes of allowing low-income seniors to be housed with “criminals” when 415 MacLaren St., an apartment building that had been used only by seniors, was converted to a mixed-use all-age building to create more affordable housing. Guirguis has threatened to sue the city on behalf of the seniors in that residence. He said they are not safe in the building.
But Holmes defended her decision.
“There are fewer and fewer seniors who need to be housed in subsidized housing,” she said, adding there were thousands of younger people on the waiting list for the service. She made the point that the seniors in the building were consulted before the change took place, and all those who opposed the plan were given the option to move to another building.
But the inquisition did not stop there. When it came to questions about Somerset Ward development, Lapointe took to criticizing the city’s implementation of its 20/20 plan, which was adopted by city council in 2003 to guide Ottawa’s development until the year 2020. Lapointe said he had not heard about the plan nor been consulted and, as a local business owner, he felt he should have had a say.
“I dare you to go right along the street and ask people out there what do they know about this Ottawa 20/20 vision. And I’ll bet you that 98.9 per cent of people will tell you they don’t know a thing about it,” Lapointe said, asking when and where consultations had taken place.
But Holmes was ready with a retort. She said promotion of the consultations “was pretty widespread.”
“There were flyers sent out by the city,” she said, adding that newspapers had covered the issue as well. She said that if Lapointe had not heard of the plan, it was because he was not paying attention.
Most of the criticism directed at Holmes came from Lapointe and Guirguis. Karen Dawe and Idris Ben-Tahir, the two other candidates seeking election, kept quiet for the most part and chose to tackle only issues, not their fellow candidates.
Dawe admitted to being shy when it came to public speaking, but piped up when the debate veered towards talk of homelessness and the affordability of transportation, two issues she said should carry more weight at city council meetings.
Ben-Tahir pounded his fists on the table for emphasis when he spoke in favour of beautifying the downtown core.
“As you know, downtown has been going down, down, down,” he said referring to the tattoo parlors and graffiti along Bank Street. He said council should pay more attention to aesthetics – after all Ottawa is Canada’s capital city.
But he said little when the debate shifted to other issues.
Both Dawe and Ben-Tahir were overshadowed by Guirguis who, when he was not stressing how proud he was to be Canadian, was speaking out loudly against higher taxes and the light-rail proposal, and accusing Holmes of putting senior citizens in danger.
For the most part, Holmes kept her cool, responding only to questions directed her way and rarely demanding answers from her opponents. When it was time for audience questions, a few members of some local community associations came to Holmes’ defense. They pointed to the fact that the other candidates had never attended their association meetings nor consulted their members to see what Somerset residents wanted done over the next three years. It was the only point in the evening where Holmes’ opponents found themselves in the line of fire.
Otherwise, all the criticism was directed at Holmes’ 24-year record. Still, she left surrounded by supporters: despite strong opposition from her electoral opponents, it seems some Somerset Ward residents are not ready for her reign to end just yet.