Mark Sutcliffe secures four more years as Ottawa mayor

Voters have sent Mark Sutcliffe back to city hall for four more years as Ottawa’s mayor.

In a race of 14 candidates, Sutcliffe consistently polled ahead of his challengers, including outgoing city councillor for Kitchissippi Ward, Jeff Leiper.

Sutcliffe campaigned on a platform of “moving forward, together,” highlighting his track record of improvements to Ottawa’s beleaguered transit system, increased funding to Ottawa Police Service and public safety measures and improvements to critical city infrastructure.

At his election night party at Hometown Sports Grill in Ottawa’s Heron Park neighbourhood, Sutcliffe told the crowd of supporters and well-wishers, “I’m going to be in the office first thing tomorrow morning, working for the people of Ottawa.”

Entering to cheers of “four more years,” Sutcliffe wound his way through the crowd before taking the stage to share his vision for the next term.

“When the new term begins, we’re going to move quickly. We’re going to move fast on the new $95 transit passes. We’re going to move on our $10-billion infrastructure plan, we’re going to move on freezing recreation fees on building more affordable and supportive housing and we are going to continue on the path to ending youth homelessness in Ottawa,” said Sutcliffe.

Rumi Prince told the Algonquin Times she chose to support Sutcliffe in his re-election bid due his support of her family through difficult times.

“We’ve been following him for the past four or five years. He has stood beside us as a family with a small business,” said Prince. “We have a foundation in honour of our late son who passed away. (Sutcliffe) comes every year to our memorial walk to support us.

“He hits all the points that we need and we love supporting him,” she said.

Catherine McLaughlin joined the crowd of well-wishers with her husband Terry, saying they were thrilled with the night’s results.

“Mark Sutcliffe is an Ottawa staple and has really proven himself. He’s a man of character, a man of integrity and he is exactly what the city needs,” said McLaughlin.

Sutcliffe ran a campaign that promised low taxes while also pledging to spend $10 billion over the next ten years on infrastructure developments.

The mayoral race became heated at times between Sutcliffe and challenger Leiper, with the incumbent mayor accusing Leiper of not being transparent with voters.

Leiper had proposed a one per cent infrastructure tax levy rather than committing to a specific tax increase.

In a heartfelt concession speech, Leiper told supporters that, while he had not won the bid for mayor, he would continue to work for the people of Ottawa.

According to the unofficial results, Sutcliffe won with 44.65 per cent of the vote compared to 33.9 per cent for Leiper.

The City of Ottawa’s unofficial results showed a voter turnout of 36.21 per cent of 868,248 eligible voters.

Ottawa’s next city council will begin their work Nov. 15.