A Centretown arts advocate man has thrown one of his many hats in the ring to represent the Somerset Ward on city council. Don Fex is a local theatre director, festival co-ordinator, book store manager and, if he gets his way in October, he’ll be able to add municipal politician to that list.
Fex says that his main motivation to get involved in city politics is to shake things up at city hall where there has been no change in council in eight years other than through retirement.
“Council has had enough time with one another, they get into ward only politics. We need to start putting Ottawa as a whole before the ward,” he said in an interview..
Fex said he decided to run this year because he had enough of Ottawa not living up to its potential and was tired of the city’s bad image.
While he admitted that running against the popular Diane Holmes, who has represented the ward off and on since 1982, may be an uphill battle, he said that the ward needs a change.
“It doesn’t matter how progressive of a councillor you are, if you’ve been there for twenty years it makes it hard to see the forest for the trees,” Fex said.
He is also quick to remind his naysayers that Holmes’s 1982 election victory was a complete upset and that the winds of change may sweep Centretown once again.
To keep those winds blowing, Fex says that he would support a term cap for council, limiting councillors to three terms.
Fex said he hopes to rise above Ottawa’s parochial ward-based politics by appealing to reason. He said he would put pressure on sub-urban councillors to recognize Centretown’s value to their wards, in that most Ottawa residents benefit from the downtown’s infrastructure and should help support it.
In terms of priorities for Centretown itself, Fex says that he wants to put an emphasis on public space. He said Centretown is unique from other wards in that thousands of residents commute into the neighbourhood to work and then leave as quickly as possible once their day is finished. Fex said his vision for Centretown is for people to enjoy and respect public space.
Fex cited as an example the recent Bank Street rehabilitation, where street furniture and public spaces were specifically designed to discourage loitering in order to eliminate congregations of homeless people.
“I understand the reasoning, but it’s unfair to penalize residents for a problem that could be solved another way,” he said.
Fex said that his strategy for transit would be to increase ridership by making the system more user-friendly such as constructing a winterized shelter at the new Baseline Station, which many Centretown residents use. He added that he would be interested in talking with the Gatineau transit authority to reduce the number of buses that cross the bridges and travel down Wellington Street.
“I sat there for an hour one day and counted 46 buses, most of them not even half full, we could reduce congestion on our side and save them money with better planning,” said Fex.
As for budget savings, Fex said he would like to re-evaluate the way Ottawa Police Services spends. He wants two officers per car which would save on maintenance, fuel, and create a safer environment for officers.
Ultimately, Fex said, city council needs to change and he says he’s the man to do it. The fact that he hasn’t to-date been actively involved in city politics is, according to Fex, one of his greatest assets.
“Ottawa is growing up, we’re not the small town we used to be and we need to start electing people who put the city first, rather than their political careers.”