Over the next four weeks, residents of Centretown will have the chance to put a completely new slate of municipal candidates through their paces – an opportunity that should not be overlooked.
With incumbent Diane Holmes retiring from city politics and 11 candidates vying to replace her, Somerset will get a fresh face at city hall after many years.
Somerset Ward has had been represented in city council by two women since its creation in 1994. Elisabeth Arnold served on council from 1994 until 2003 while Holmes sat on the regional council. Holmes took over Arnold’s seat when Arnold left city council in 2003.
Even before the creation of Somerset Ward, Holmes represented a large part of Centretown as city councillor for Wellington Ward, where she was elected in 1982.
While Holmes’s contributions to the ward have been numerous, the importance of the opportunity to elect a new councillor in Somerset should not be understated.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with a popular representative being re-elected. It’s a testament to Holmes’s appeal that she routinely won with 60 per cent of the vote.
Incumbents have a wealth of experience to draw from when dealing with community concerns. This was especially the case in Somerset Ward: Holmes had almost 30 years of work under her belt when she was re-elected in 2010.
Still, on Ottawa’s city council an incumbent loses so rarely that the changing of the guard is truly a special moment.
Six council incumbents lost their re-election bids in 2010, a surprisingly large number when you consider the fact that not one did in either 2003 or 2006.
Thanks to reports compiled by then-councillor and now-candidate Alex Cullen, the sizeable advantage for an incumbent in a city race has been made clear.
According to Cullen’s calculations, council incumbents in 2006 raised an average of about $26,000, taking around $780 from their own pockets. Challengers raised an average of $9,000, and spent about $1,800 of their own money.
In Somerset the difference was smaller, but still noticeable. Holmes raised roughly $6,000 more than her closest competitor in 2006, and $5,000 more in 2003.
This time around, Somerset Ward is home to a wide-open race where no candidate has the advantage of incumbency.
Eleven candidates should mean a healthy exchange of ideas, but it’s the job of the voter to question our candidates and hold the their feet to the fire. That’s called democracy.
In making their decision, Centretown voters should know that whoever is elected in Ward 14 on Oct 27. no one will start their next election campaign with a sizeable advantage over the opposition.
If history is any guide, they might just end up in office for a while.