Thanks for your recent comment on my February 4, 2010 blog Doug but I wanted to personally respond to your comment that I always am attacking River Ward Councillor Maria McRae. First of all, I comment on Councillor McRae the most because she is the councillor for the ward in which I live. I am far more aware of the issues for which she deals with on behalf of River Ward residents and therefore ,I comment more on my local issues. Not all my posts are negative and I usually give her credit when she does something either well or extraordinary for a city councillor. On the flip side, I have no...

Even though Nortel Networks filed for bankruptcy protection on January 14, 2008, some two years ago, it took a by-election in Ottawa West Nepean to nudge Ottawa born Premier Dalton McGuinty to do what the province should always have done when the issue first came up, cover the pension of the Nortel employees. But this post is not about the Nortel employees getting their pension back, good for you. No, this post is about the strange world of McGunity politics; the world where no money goes to anything unless there is a political gain for the governing Liberals. That’s right. It’s not what...

Beth Graham captured the PC nomination for Ottawa West Nepean. She will the PC candidate for the by-election on March 4, 2010.

A quote from Councillor Clive Doucet backs up what I’ve been saying about Mayor Larry O’Brien. Here is Councillor Doucet’s quote: “It is very clear the mayor is constantly complaining about not getting his agenda through, but he’s got it through. He’s got the budgets he wanted, he killed the light rail, he got the tunnel … and he’s managed to push Lansdowne Park into a private consortium. “So, he’s winning, I’m losing.” You may not be accustomed to Mayor O’Brien’s tactics or vernacular. He is not of the usual politician pedigree. But when you look back at his...

If there was ever a sign that residents of Ottawa care about the city then the launch today of Fair Chance 2010 (www.FairChance2010.ca) is it. Fair Chance is a committee made up of local community leaders who are reaching out to find good, credible candidates to run in the 2010 municipal election. They are not trying to put together a slate. They are trying to assist newcomers who may be interested in giving 4-8 years of their lives to making Ottawa a better place to live. Their website is easy to use and straight forward. I encourage anyone who has an inkling of a feeling that they can do better...

Seems like the new expanded community centre for Hunt Club may contain an office for the Councillor when she is in the ward some 200m from her house. Yup, a $3.8M expansion that doesn’t meet all the needs of this fast growing community and yet it is being rumoured to have put aside an office for the Councillor to use when she travels from City Hall to spend time in the community. For the past six months, the River Ward Councillor, Maria McRae, has been preaching that the expansion of the Hunt Club Community Centre has been on schedule and on budget. In fact, on January 4, the local EMC...

Randall Denley published a piece on Saturday (Hume is the man to watch) that suggests that Councillor Peter Hume may bring another dimension needed in the mayoral race. It got me thinking if another person running is really what we need for the 2010 election. I firmly believe that we need to change councillors this time around and the more focus we put on the mayor, the less focus we get on the ward races. But back to the Denley piece. He correctly points out that Hume is not your typical in your face councillor. He’s thoughtful and looking for consensus when floating options. What I remember...