Mayoral candidates face off with one week left before election

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Neither Catherine McKenney nor Mark Sutcliffe, frontrunners in Ottawa’s mayoral race, did a lot harm to their very own or one another’s campaigns Monday night time, as every largely held their floor in a debate that featured 4 of the 14 candidates vying for town’s prime elected place. 

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Dubbed the “habitable” metropolis debate and hosted by the Glebe Neighborhood Affiliation at the side of a rating of neighborhood associations, the occasion was held at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Constructing in entrance of a standing-room-only viewers. CBC journalist Joanne Chianello moderated the two-hour affair, throughout which the candidates, together with Bob Chiarelli and Nour Kadri, have been requested their opinions and positions on quite a few subjects, together with Lansdowne 2.0; finances spending, cuts and taxation; inexpensive housing, security for cyclists and pedestrians; metropolis corridor governance; social providers; recreation amenities; rebuilding downtown and the ByWard Market; classes realized through the “Freedom Convoy” occupation; and, after all, transit.

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As McKenney (who makes use of they/them pronouns) and Sutcliffe stayed near their acquainted speaking factors — McKenney’s being their “totally costed platform” to make Ottawa a “world-class metropolis,” and Sutcliffe’s his “fiscal accountability” and plans for “constructing a greater metropolis” — there have been some occasional sparks between the 2.

McKenney repeated their declare that Sutcliffe’s finances has a gaping gap in it, which they beforehand made at a mayoral debate final week — a declare that Sutcliffe once more denied. Sutcliffe then claimed, not for the primary time, that income shortfalls in McKenney’s plan will result in a lot larger taxes within the second half of their time period, if elected.

Kadri additionally weighed in on the topic, suggesting that Sutcliffe’s plan had “inconsistencies” in it that he mentioned would see Sutcliffe’s proposed tax will increase of two and a pair of.5 per cent balloon to 5 per cent. Whereas Kadri won’t leapfrog the three high-profile candidates who additionally took half in Monday’s debate within the polls or on election day subsequent week, he greater than held his personal along with his information of the problems to show he deserved his spot on the stage.

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In the meantime, McKenney and Sutcliffe traded jabs on different points, with Sutcliffe suggesting that McKenney’s $250-million biking infrastructure plan, the price of which he estimated could be a lot larger, was not a precedence shared by most Ottawans. McKenney later returned the parry when, whereas requested about rejuvenating the ByWard Market, they mentioned that hiring 100 further law enforcement officials — one among Sutcliffe’s proposed plans — wasn’t the answer.

In addition they continued to disagree on quite a few different points. Sutcliffe promised to seek out $35 million in spending efficiencies by conducting a line-by-line audit of town finances. McKenney mentioned that will solely result in service cuts.

Neither frontrunner was there to persuade the opposite of their deserves. However neither knocked the opposite to the mat, both, to scoop up any undecided voters.  

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Chiarelli, in the meantime, solid each opponents because the “wild spending candidates,” claiming that he was the one “don’t-raise-taxes candidate.

“I’ve carried out it earlier than,” he mentioned of his promise to freeze property taxes, referring to his tenure as Ottawa’s mayor within the early 2000s.

Chiarelli leaned closely on his earlier experiences as mayor, regional chair and provincial cupboard minister on the expense of precise specifics on quite a few points.

When requested about how he would guarantee biking and pedestrian security, he replied: “The entire problem of biking is a precedence problem on the metropolis, at metropolis council, and fairly frankly, I might defer to the candidate on my proper (McKenney) for recommendations on biking,” he mentioned, including that he would “abide” by their recommendations.