With the municipal election just over four months away one Ottawa group wants to start a movement that will change the way business is done at city hall.
That was the theme of a panel discussion hosted by the political action group Our Ottawa at Carleton University on Tuesday.
Panelists ranged in backgrounds and provided a diversity of opinion on how to overcome Ottawa’s ward-based politics and address voter apathy.
The panelists were women’s rights activist Fantu Melesse, corporate lawyer Michael Polowin, community association president Shawn Menard, and University of Ottawa political scientist Caroline Andrew.
Polowin said one problem with the way Ottawa’s municipal government works is that councilors jealously guard their wards as their own fiefdoms and defer to one another when an issue concerns other wards.
He suggested a solution to this would be to redraw ward lines and make half of council members — like the mayoralty — city-wide representatives.
Menard, an Our Ottawa member, said he organized the event in order to get people asking questions and to bring together various groups to identify a mutual interest in a reinvigorated city hall.
He said the time is ripe for a movement in Ottawa given council’s lack of risk management, increasing organization of students who form one eighth of the population, increased alienation of advisory committees and the growing undercurrent of opinion that Ottawa needs change.
Our Ottawa has been trying to identify those areas of common interest for months. Menard said that so far they’ve been able to bring together groups of people who would have never found common ground before.
“We need change, we need to facilitate dialogue and find out where we agree,” he said.
As an example, he pointed to the fact that Our Ottawa had developed cooperation between groups such as environmentalists and unions, and rural and urban residents over issues such as extending the urban boundary.
The panel discussion fit this strategy and also attracted four candidates for council.
Our Ottawa has yet to endorse candidates, but Menard said one thing the group won’t do is endorse any incumbent.