[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600" caption=""Two for the mayor's debate, please" ( fortunately, plans to charge $10 for last night's mayor's debate were dropped )"][/caption] If the performances at the opening mayoral debate are any indication, Ottawa voters may be left scratching their heads in confusion this election season. The two so-called front runners used the opportunity to cajole and verbally headlock each other, while the other candidates sputtered and grasped at the remaining time. Media reports on the debate focused on the few moments of true debate between Jim Watson and incumbent Larry O’Brien, with brief mentions of how the oldest candidate in the race stormed out of the very hall that is named after him. Andrew Haydon, about twenty years from his first retirement from politics and well past his political prime, guaranteed himself media coverage with a last-minute entry into the race. Then he earned only a little more through a dramatic storm-out after failing to attract significant interest from the audience and then refusing to continue debating (but not before returning to the mic to denounce the debate).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="510" caption="Watching paint dry: a better story than our mayor's race?"][/caption] At just over 130 days away from the ballot and it’s barely registered to most in the city that an election is around the corner. Sure, incumbents are slowly rolling out sleepy reelection campaigns. A few upstarts are getting their cars wrapped and shiny new social media profiles in order. But, the mayors race only seems busy because Jim Watson keeps an inhuman pace. A long standing Ottawa joke is that Watson will attend the opening ofan envelope. It follows that if Watson is the hare, the Alex Cullen team is currently the tortoise. A sleeping tortoise. Which, I suppose is fair considering one of them actually has a full time job right now. f you missed what passes for bluster in the 2010 election: Watson is fretting about costs on the LRT project. O’Brien called him a “little old lady” on CFRA. The media failed to really engage in the misogynistic comment or the issue at hand. Plus ca change.

This half of CityVote is taking a decidedly visual turn for the next little while. I’ll be blunt: I was having trouble breaking out of my “rant mode” with written text. It comes too easily. CityVote and this space needs to be a conversation and my role is to provoke that. I’ve had some amazing people ask me to help them tell their stories. I can’t think of a better way than to teach them how to do it themselves. Making the invisible visible will be the theme of the audio/video project. My team at ...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="596" caption="Sidewalk lake downtown: a taste of what pedestrians get for their taxes?"][/caption] Common sense. For a lot of people who live in Ontario, I suppose Mike Harris and his right-wing “Common Sense Revolution” ruined those words. But taking a page from progressive movements, I say let’s reclaim “common sense.” It's the essential trait missing among the many elected people on city council who can’t see past the boundaries of their own ward. Perhaps it’s a leadership deficit, forced amalgamation or simple political rivalry that keeps these ...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Reserved seating: commitment-phobes only?"][/caption] Ottawa is a change-averse city. Or is it our elected leaders who are holding back change? Our current city council has been dragging their heals on fundamental debates and decisions about transit, infrastructure, and urban development for over a decade. This on-again, off-again relationship with decision making has turned city council into the cliched commitment-phobic boyfriend. Just as you’re sure council is about to propose a great solution, one of them steps in to break up the near-deal and send debate careening off into committee hell for another six months. When asked if we want change, citizens in Ottawa respond with a resounding “yes!” Until, that is, it’s time to actually vote. Then we return our incumbents to their squabbling and bickering.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="800" caption="Hartman's Piano Lounge in happier times"][/caption]