Advocacy group shines a light on Councillors who voted in the public interest, and those who did not.
Today Our Ottawa is releasing a complete, colour-coded voting record for the term of our outgoing City Council from 2006-2010. This release declares the local advocacy group's preference on every key vote of Council, it clarifies Our Ottawa's positions and clearly identifies the Councillors most in need of replacing.
It is clear from the voting record that Councillors Harder, Chiarelli, and Monette among others as well as Mayor O'Brien are not voting in the best interests of the community. There is another big group of Councillors, including Councillors Brooks and McRae, who are far less dependable than the citizens need them to be, and if there are good alternatives, they should be defeated and replaced. Our Ottawa's initial policy vision was referred to by some as vague, or as 'motherhood statements'. Now this is certainly not the case, as it doesn't get any more specific than this. Our Ottawa has laid out clearly who needs to go, and why.
Our Ottawa plans to announce its initial round of candidate endorsements in the very near future and will only endorse non-incumbents. In the last election, and even the one before it, no incumbent Councillors were replaced, and Our Ottawa feels that needs to change and that the next Council needs new blood and a positive vision. Our Ottawa's goal has been to bring together people from across the City who agree with the policy ideas, who want to see a Council with greater city-wide vision, and who will help elect Councillors to tip the balance in favour of Ottawa's citizens after the next election.
To view the complete colour coded voting record and Our Ottawa ranking of sitting Councillors go to www.ourottawa.ca.
Our Ottawa has been organizing among various community associations, advisory committees, City-wide activist groups and concerned citizens for two years. During that time, through many open meetings and consensus building, Our Ottawa lobbied and won on key issues around the Council table and released a policy vision also accessible on the website.