Mayor O'Brien seeks re-election

Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien has confirmed he will seek a second term.

"I have a very good feeling about the city of Ottawa, I think we're on the brink of something magnificent, something wonderful, and quite frankly, I want to finish the job I started in 2006," O'Brien said Wednesday at a news conference at the courtyard of the Sussex Drive condominium building where he lives.

"What we have done in the last term of council is simply outstanding and I want that to continue."

O'Brien disclosed his plans to run for re-election in an interview with A-Channel Wednesday morning around 7:30 a.m., and officially confirmed them at the news conference.

Municipal elections will be held across Ontario on Oct. 25. 

Prior to O'Brien's announcement, 10 candidates were running for Ottawa mayor, including former mayor and Liberal MPP Jim Watson and Bay Ward councillor Alex Cullen.

O'Brien said he waited to see if any other candidates would step up who could build on council's achievements and move the city forward.

"Quite frankly, none of them fit that bill."

O'Brien said council has been able to make decisions and get things done under his watch. He cited the construction of Ottawa's new convention centre and the council approval of the controversial redevelopment plan for Lansdowne Park under a public-private partnership. He also took credit for getting the city's new light rail plan "fully funded." The $2.1 billion transit plan has received a commitment of $600 million each from the federal and provincial governments — less than one-third each. However, the city has estimated it will be able to make up the remaining amount.

Watson issued a news release just before 9 a.m. saying he wants to "welcome Larry O'Brien to the mayoral race today."

"This election will be a referendum on his performance as mayor over the last four years," Watson added in his statement. "I look forward to Larry O’Brien explaining his handling of the challenges our city has faced over the past four years."

Before being elected mayor in 2006, O'Brien was the chairman and former CEO of Calian, the Kanata-based technology services company he founded in 1982. During his first election campaign, he promised to freeze taxes for four years and to review the city's $778-million light rail contract with Siemens-PCL/Dufferin.

Following the election, O'Brien led the new council that cancelled the light rail contract and started a process that eventually led to a plan for a new, $2.1-billion light rail project.

He eventually backed down on his promise to freeze taxes, and later admitted the promise was "naive."

O'Brien's biggest hurdle during his term was being criminally charged with influence peddling in relation to the 2006 municipal election. He went to trial and was found not guilty in August 2009.

Walter Robinson, who was O'Brien's chief of staff during his first six moths as mayor, said it would be a tough race. He said Watson, the current frontrunner, has the advantage of not having been a part of the current council and therefore "being able to criticize the record not only of the mayor but of council as a whole."

He added: "There's a great appetite for change across the city that I've never seen before in my life in this city."