Four years ago, Ottawa residents voted for change. They entrusted the mayoralty to political amateur Larry O’Brien. Tired of indolent politicians, voters wanted O’Brien to use his business-savvy to turn the city into another successful business venture and to inject new life into city council.
Four years later, Ottawa residents voted for change again. They entrusted the mayoralty to life-long politician Jim Watson.
Tired of controversy, voters ousted O’Brien for a plethora of reasons, including the transit strike, not keeping his promise to raise taxes, and his legal problems.
Ottawa realized a political outsider like O’Brien was too much of a liability to lead city council again and turned to former mayor Watson.
But was voting for Watson really a vote for change? As a previous mayor, Ottawa residents already knew what they’d be getting.
The reality that at the end of the day is that Watson and O’Brien aren’t that different. They both share similar right-leaning visions and tend to be fiscal conservatives, although Watson is a card-carrying Liberal.
Sure, Ottawa elected 10 new councillors, but most areconservatives. However, when O’Brien was elected, a similar divide was seen with city council leaning left. Although council will have new faces, the left-right tension will remain.
If Ottawa really wanted change,it might have chosen Clive Doucet.
Doucet proved during his term as councillor for Capital Ward that he was a risk taker, proposed innovative and sometimes absurd ideas, but managed to appear sensible enough to last 12 years in office.Ultimately, Doucet scared off votes by being such a risk taker. Ottawa took a risk with O’Brien and probably was nervous to do so again.
Ottawa is in a rut, never satisfied with its local government.
Will this cycle ever end?
It all depends on Watson’s four-year term. Ottawans assumed that since Watson was already mayor once that he might actually know what he’s doing and get things done.
However, there will still be a learning curve for Watson, since he’s returning to a city that has drastically changed since the late 1990s. For one thing, amalgamation in 2001 turned Ottawa into a sprawling city with a population of more than 900,000.
The urban-rural divide, suburban sprawl, environmental concerns, and the current recession are all new issues, ones Watson did not have to deal with in his previous term as mayor.
Watson has appointed an elite team of Liberal strategists to advise him before his term as mayor begins. Turning to career strategists who bring conventional and traditional ideas to the table is not a way to bring change.
If Ottawa really wants to know what a vote for change might look like, perhaps they can look to Calgary for electing its first Muslim mayor Naheed Nenshi, or even Toronto for electing the controversial Rob Ford.
A vote for change is a clichéd term for any newly elected public official or party. Yes, there is a technical change, but that doesn’t guarantee any worthwhile change in policy or tact.