Apparently there are a record number of candidates running for municipal council this year. For those looking for some alternatives to the status quo, this is good news. Only one candidate is running unopposed, and several incumbents are retiring – so no matter what, we'll see new faces on council this year. And it's good for our local democracy to have a lot of people show their interest in serving their community. In the coming months, we'll have a chance to look at the ward races in detail. Folks are still launching campaigns, so the field is shifting. I'm reluctant to step in and start analyzing each race at this point. But as someone who has a keen interest in seeing more women in elected office, I couldn't resist doing a little calculation. According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, women make up 13.9 per cent of mayors and 23 per cent of councilors – pretty much on par with other levels of government, and contributing to Canada's dismal international rating for women's participation in politics. FCM wants to raise Canada's average to 30%, and have been running campaign schools and workshops across the country for a few years now. Local councilors Marianne Wilkinson and Jan Harder held a campaign school for women here, which from all reports was well attended.

What a difference a few weeks make. It seems we have a mayoral race. It wasn't much of a surprise when Mayor Larry O'Brien announced his intention to seek re-election. With the passage of Lansdowne Live, he likely concluded he had accomplished enough to run on his record. Sure enough, that was the focus of his re-election announcement (as awkward as it was). O'Brien declared that he wants the election to be about leadership, which he says is about “getting things done”. “We've finally gotten over the constipation of amalgamation”, he said. It's an odd statement to make for a mayor who leads a fractured council that often split along urban/suburban/rural lines, that has flip-flopped on multiple decisions, that cost taxpayers millions by canceling the former light rail contract, and that unnecessarily prolonged a bus strike. Yet when it came to budget time, the council seemed to be able to get things done in spite of the Mayor. But is it a more functional body than when Larry O'Brien took office? Hardly. And as others have pointed out,  O'Brien is quick to claim the credit for projects that were started well before his time or which have been spearheaded by someone else. And as for those voters who have been paying closer attention, he is counting on a certain number of them overlooking the flaws, and focusing instead on the promises he has kept.

[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="480" caption="In lieu of fresh thinking, will candidates rely on the old stand-by?"][/caption] It's true that elections are no time to debate policy – between the hot button-pressing and the sound bite speaking, no one seems to want to do any actual big-T Thinking. But municipal elections are slightly different than their provincial or federal counterparts. Candidates can register as early as ten months before election day, so they can start spending money and get their message out to prospective voters. With six months to go, it's still early, so it's not too surprising we haven't seen much from the front-running mayoral candidates about their vision for Ottawa. But perhaps it's time they started throwing out some ideas. Six months is long enough to get people talking. By the time September rolls around, schedules become packed, the media starts paying more attention, and candidates have less control over the debate. So why not get ahead of the game and set the agenda while you still can?

[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 ...

As I write this, I'm enjoying a family holiday in Vancouver. Travelling always makes me feel a little wistful, especially when I come across great public spaces or city services we don't see much of in Ottawa. Sure, it's easy to be envious of the big things – great parks, great transit, and so on. But what gets me going are the little things. Like public washrooms in playgrounds... open ones! In March! Or fenced dog runs tucked into unexpected spaces. Or street signs that ...

[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.