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It was a crowded room and a crowded stage in Stittsville Thursday night as all nine candidates vying for the community’s seat on Ottawa city council faced questions from a church hall full of voters.
The suburb is one of only two wards in Ottawa without an incumbent in the running, and competition is fierce. Glen Glower announced in February that he wouldn’t be seeking a third term — keeping a promise he’d made to only serve two terms
A lack of transit options, the long-discussed widening of Carp Road and making sure Stittsville gets good value for its tax money quickly emerged as major issues.
“It’s a hassle to get around,” Kevin Hua, a local activist who has previously run in other elections and is putting his name forward again, said on Thursday evening. “I regularly nap when going downtown because the bus ride is that long.”
Tanya Hein, who also tried for the seat in 2022, agreed.
“Transit is our number one priority, and I say that because it is like an octopus with tentacles everywhere,” she said.
Affordability and the rate at which homes are going up were also hotly debated.
Mandeep Basra, a local real estate broker, was among those who grilled the council hopefuls.
He described the number of townhomes being built in Stittsville as “scary” and asked how they’d prevent problems with on-street parking caused by a lack of bus service.
His question prompted Sheetal Narwal, another one of the candidates, to cite another suburb already struggling with those issues.
“At so many doors, this question has come up. People are scared that we don’t turn into Barrhaven,” she said, adding that efficient planning is the answer.
The debate hosted by the Stittsville Village Association drew roughly 150 people.
Among them was Pat O’Keefe, who said he came to learn more about all of the candidates before deciding who’ll get his vote.
“I’m shocked. You know, I thought, ‘I’ll show up and I’ll sit in the back row and sneak in, sneak out,'” he said of the turnout. “It’s amazing.”
O’Keefe said his criteria for a councillor is simple — he looks for someone who tells it like it is.
“You can either be political and shoot the crap, or you can be sincere and say it like you believe it and what you think the community needs,” he said.
The evening began around 7 p.m. with a brief introduction and opening statements from each candidate, before it was turned over to questions from the audience that were selected through a random draw.
Also eyeing the council seat are:
* Chelsea Walton, who has experience working in two ward offices and organizes local events including an annual Easter egg hunt.
* Paul Meek, former owner of Kichesippi Beer Co.
* Mani Sharma, who described himself as a farmer and former worker in Ottawa’s tech sector.
* Devin Michael Fitzgerald O’Brien, who said he runs an anime and Pokemon store and spoke out about developer influence in Stittsville.
* Marie-Ange Ahinful, who said her biggest priority is making neighbourhoods safer.
Constituents will also see a familiar name on the ballot.
Theresa Qadri, wife of former three-term councillor Shad Qadri, is looking to take over his old role.
“First and foremost, Stittsville has not been heard,” she said during the debate. “We need to get our fair amount of money back from our taxes to represent Stittsville because of the development.”
Qadri held up a pink binder she described as “Theresa’s playbook,” stating it details everything the community needs to do and adding, if elected, she’ll create a dashboard on her website to keep residents up to date on developments.
In a video update to his constituents when he announced he would not be running again, Gower said, “We always need new voices and new experience around the council table, that’s for sure.”
Gower was a prominent voice on council, chairing the transit committee and filling the vice-chair position on the planning and housing committee.
Voters will pick his replacement on Oct. 26.
Original Source: CBC News
