City of Ottawa

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🔎 The race

Ottawa elects a mayor, 24 city councillors and school board trustees on Monday, October 26, 202616. Fourteen certified candidates are running for mayor5, with incumbent Mark Sutcliffe seeking another term1. Ontario holds municipal elections every four years3, and CTV News has tallied the race "by the numbers"32. This guide profiles every mayoral candidate and every pledge on the public record, with a source for each claim.

The ballot covers the mayoralty, 24 ward councillors — one for each of Ottawa's wards — and trustees for four school boards16. The official figure of eligible voters for the 2026 election is 868,9511, against a population of 1,017,449 in the 2021 census1. Nominations closed Aug. 21, 2026: three challengers registered on the first day, and the rest filed later in the nomination period163. In 2022, 316,260 of 722,227 eligible voters cast a ballot — a turnout of 43.8%2.

Six of the fourteen mayoral candidates also appeared on Ottawa's 2022 ballot: Mark Sutcliffe and Jeff Leiper won (mayor and Ward 15 councillor), while Zed Chebib, Bernard Couchman, Jacob Solomon and Peter Westaway ran unsuccessfully12.

Polling shows incumbent Mark Sutcliffe facing a concerted challenge from at least three candidates: councillor Jeff Leiper, homebuilder Alex Lawson and economist Neil Saravanamuttoo4. An exclusive CTV Nanos poll published October 9, 2026 gave Sutcliffe a commanding lead in the race7. The four front-runners are the ones invited to spar in televised debates, while the Ottawa Citizen profiled the other ten candidates, who "have differing visions on the city's priorities"8.

Note on sources: certified candidates, biographical background and results come from the City of Ottawa's official election portals1 and coverage by CBC, CTV News Ottawa, the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, CityNews and Wikipedia6, each claim footnoted. Campaign websites present candidates' own claims. Where a candidate has published no platform that could be found, this guide says so explicitly rather than guessing.

2022 in review: in the last municipal election, 316,260 of 722,227 eligible Ottawans (43.8%) voted2. Mark Sutcliffe won the mayoralty outright with 161,679 votes (51.4%) — an archived result consistent with the certified record for this election12 — ahead of Catherine McKenney's 119,241 (37.9%), Bob Chiarelli's 15,998 (5.1%), Nour Kadri's 7,496 (2.4%) and Mike Maguire's 2,775 (0.9%); the other nine candidates shared 7,571 votes (2.4%)2.

The 22 surviving 2022 ward races were won by: Ward 1 Orleans East Cumberland — Matthew Luloff (11,919); Ward 2 Orleans West Innes — Laura Dudas (11,821); Ward 3 Barrhaven West — David Hill (6,230); Ward 4 Kanata North — Cathy Curry (8,827); Ward 5 West Carleton March — Clarke Kelly (2,550); Ward 6 Stittsville — Glen Gower (7,758); Ward 7 Bay — Theresa Kavanagh (12,398); Ward 8 College — Laine Johnson (8,899); Ward 10 Gloucester Southgate — Jessica Bradley (4,927); Ward 11 Beacon Hill Cyrville — Tim Tierney (7,617); Ward 12 Rideau Vanier — Stéphanie Plante (4,621); Ward 13 Rideau Rockcliffe — Rawlson King (8,481); Ward 14 Somerset — Ariel Troster (8,663); Ward 15 Kitchissippi — Jeff Leiper (11,055); Ward 16 River — Riley Brockington (9,595); Ward 17 Capital — Shawn Menard (11,358); Ward 18 Alta Vista — Marty Carr (6,088); Ward 19 Orleans South Navan — Catherine Kitts (9,466); Ward 20 Osgoode — George Darouze (4,353); Ward 22 Riverside South Findlay Creek — Steve Desroches (5,682); Ward 23 Kanata South — Allan Hubley (5,334); Ward 24 Barrhaven East — Wilson Lo (4,403)2. Of these 22 winners, 19 are certified to run again for the same ward seat in 2026 and Jeff Leiper is running for mayor, while Ward 6 councillor Glen Gower and Ward 20 councillor George Darouze do not appear on the 2026 certified list12.

⚡ Key issues

🎙 Debates & forums

The four leading candidates — Mark Sutcliffe, Jeff Leiper, Alex Lawson and Neil Saravanamuttoo — were the ones invited to spar in televised debates8, and the same four appeared at the Ottawa Board of Trade's all-candidate forum11. CTV News Ottawa debate (Oct. 14, 2026): "Transit, housing, taxes and infrastructure headline CTV News Ottawa mayoral debate" (Ted Raymond)10; the top four candidates sparred on the debate stage, with cost of living emerging as the main issue driving discussion, and CTV published the debate in parts — top issues, candidate vs. candidate exchanges, and voter questions17. Ottawa Board of Trade debate (Oct. 1, 2026): moderated by Globe and Mail senior political reporter Marieke Walsh and attended by Lawson, Leiper, Saravanamuttoo and Sutcliffe on four business priorities — leadership at City Hall, transit and infrastructure, public safety and downtown, and affordability; transit reliability, service levels and fares were central, including the respective municipal and provincial roles in supporting light rail, with recent flooding putting infrastructure resilience in focus; downtown and ByWard Market safety, policing resources, supportive housing, treatment and harm reduction, the visitor economy, festivals and public spaces; and housing supply, development charges, approval processes, property taxes, budget transparency, red tape and permit timeliness11. Schedule of mayoral forums found in the public record: Sept. 17, 2026 — CAFES Ottawa sustainability debate, on climate action, growth, transportation, housing, trees and resilience at Centretown United Church15; Sept. 24, 2026 — Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association and Ottawa Real Estate Board debate on housing, development and growth, with registered candidates Lawson, Leiper, Saravanamuttoo and Sutcliffe14; Oct. 1, 2026 — Ottawa Board of Trade debate11; Oct. 14, 2026 — CTV News Ottawa debate, where cost of living led1017; Oct. 15, 2026 — Old Ottawa East, Glebe and Old Ottawa South community debate, "Leadership for a liveable Ottawa", 7 p.m. at Knox Presbyterian Church, moderated by CBC's Hallie Cotnam and livestreamed at rogerstv.com/liveableottawa13; Oct. 21, 2026 — CBC Ottawa mayoral debate, upcoming, with live coverage by CBC Ottawa hosts on CBC Radio One and stream12.

▸ CTV News — Transit, housing, taxes and infrastructure headline CTV News Ottawa mayoral debate

▸ CTV News Ottawa — Ottawa Election 2026 coverage hub (more debate video)

▸ Ottawa Board of Trade — Mayoral Debate Puts Ottawa's Economic Future in Focus

▸ CBC News — How to watch CBC's Ottawa mayoral debate on Oct. 21

▸ Old Ottawa East Community Association — 2026 Mayoral Debate: Leadership for a liveable Ottawa

▸ Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association — Mayoral Debate (with Ottawa Real Estate Board)

▸ CAFES Ottawa — Leading Mayoral Candidates Debate 2026

🗞 On the radar — local coverage

• EXCLUSIVE POLL: Sutcliffe holds commanding lead in Ottawa’s mayoral raceCTV News · 2026-10-09
• 2026 City of Ottawa municipal election by the numbersCTV News · 2026-10-05
• Dynamic race underway to see who will be Ottawa’s next mayorThe Globe and Mail · 2026-10-02
• Special Advance Voting this weekend in Ottawa’s municipal election. Here’s what you need to knowCTV News · 2026-10-02
• Lawson pledges to end vacant unit tax at first council meeting if elected mayor of OttawaCTV News · 2026-09-22
• Ottawa Election 2026: Meet the candidates for councillor in Ward 4 – Kanata NorthCTV News · 2026-09-22
• Ottawa mayoral candidate charged for alleged death threats against Doug Ford and Mark SutcliffeCBC · 2026-09-18
• Meet the candidates for mayor of OttawaCTV News · 2026-09-18

Headlines from the campaign period, via Google News — quoted, not paraphrased.

📊 2022 in review

Turnout in 2022: 43.8% (316,260 of 722,227 eligible voters). Full certified results: AMO 2022 portal.

⚠ 2022 results for 4 race(s) omitted: those rows failed our archive consistency checks — unmarked winners, vote totals contradicting the marked winners, or the current officeholder missing from the certified list (the last case is normal after a mid-term by-election, but we show nothing we cannot verify).