Larry O'Brien (Canadian Politician) - 2006 Ottawa Mayoral Race

2006 Ottawa Mayoral Race

In July 2006, O'Brien announced he would be running for the office of mayor of Ottawa in the 2006 municipal election, calling himself a centrist candidate.

One of the central points of his platform was a review of Ottawa's light rail expansion plans, with a plan to delay or even eliminate the full contract. He was critical of what he saw as secrecy of some of the elements of the project, as well as the effects the construction would have in areas such as the Albert and Slater street corridors, and the removal of some of the existing express bus services. In September 2006, O'Brien wrote a letter to the federal President of the Treasury Board, John Baird, requesting a formal review of the project. Baird then withheld the $200 million federal funding for the expansion plans until after the 2006 election in November.

During a candidates' debate on September 13, O'Brien stated that one solution to the problem of homeless youth sleeping under a bridge was to replace them with a tourist kiosk. He also said homelessness could be solved through a "business-like look." These statements led to criticism from other candidates for mayor, including Alex Munter and Jane Scharf.

O'Brien promised to freeze municipal taxes over the next four years and make the city's finances more fiscally responsible. However, it was expected that the budget would rise close to $95 million over the next year, sparking debate as to which public services would experience a rise in user-fees and which services would be cancelled. O'Brien also promised tougher policy on safety issues such as violent crime and drug issues, and promised to increase the number of police officers. O'Brien's other campaign commitments on law and order included his promise to eliminate the city's free crack pipe program. He also proposed introducing a by-law preventing people from sleeping in public places based on the Montreal by-law introduced in September 2006.

O'Brien said that he was in favour of the planned expansion of the Ottawa Congress Centre, which was halted by the City of Ottawa and the Ontario Government.

He proposed making Ottawa a green leader in waste-to-energy production by generating 5% of the city's electricity from waste and diverting 100% of the city's non-recycled waste from landfills; for example, Carp Road landfill site, which Waste Management had planned to double in size, would be replaced by three waste-to-energy facilities.

Before officially entering the mayoral race, O'Brien was polling in third place with little support. However, when Terry Kilrea dropped out of the race in order to pursue a council spot, most of Kilrea's supporters began to support O'Brien. He climbed to second place in the polls, ahead of incumbent Bob Chiarelli, then moved to first place ahead of challenger Alex Munter in an Ottawa Citizen poll a few days before the election. In the municipal election on 13 November 2006, O'Brien won 47% of the vote and became mayor-elect of Ottawa with a margin of 30,000 votes ahead of Munter. He subsequently stepped down as CEO and chairman of Calian while remaining a director for the company.