With advance voting now possible starting today, it is time to unveil the answers of the mayoral candidates to our questionnaire, after those from the candidates for City council ten days ago!
But first, let’s shed some light on the process: on 24 August we reached to all the candidates that had an email address published on the City’s website, and we sent reminders twice to those who hadn’t answered, even extending the deadline to make sure we would get as many answers as possible.
And answers we did get. If you’re a glass-half-full type of person, you’ll notice that almost half of the candidates did reply to the questionnaire and provided us with detailed answers. That’s a pretty decent rate!
On the other hand, if your tendency is more to see the glass half-empty, you’ll notice immediately that two main contenders never answered. Since transportation in the city is one of the main, if not the main, issues of this campaign, you would have expected all candidates to be eager to share their views on the matter. Alas, it was not the case.
It’s hard not to have the previous campaign come to mind: Catherine McKenney had a well thought-out plan to quickly create a decent network of safe bike infrastructure. Mark Sutcliffe saw an opportunity to score political points by turning cycling in Ottawa into a culture war. And we’re now all the more vulnerable for it: vindictive drivers felt validated, good infrastructure is getting built at a snail’s pace. Biking in Ottawa has now been turned into a toxic issue, and how could this not deter candidates who understand what a city needs to speak out? Certainly, some candidates didn’t answer because they knew their views wouldn’t win them any points with our readers, but we can’t help but think that other candidates kept quiet to avoid a repeat of the last municipal election.
Unfortunately, this lack of transparency keeps voters in the dark. And democracy needs informed voters to thrive.
With that said, we want to thank all the candidates who took the time to answer all of our questions!