Mayor Watson to seek third term
Posted Mar 9, 2017 04:35:06 AM.
Last Updated Mar 9, 2017 11:07:19 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — Mayor Jim Watson has announced he plans to run for a third consecutive term as mayor of Ottawa.
He made the announcement in a statement posted on social media.
Watson says he thinks that now more than ever the city needs a steady hand on the tiller.
“We have some big projects on the horizon,” Watson told Ottawa Today with Mark Sutcliffe on 1310 NEWS. “I’m very proud of the fact that we’ll be opening LRT next year, and (council) just passed, unanimously, Phase 2 to go farther east, west and south.”
The next municipal election will be held 19 months from now, in October 2018.
Watson was first elected to Ottawa city council in 1991 and, following a second term as councillor, became mayor in 1997 with 82 per cent of the vote.
After resigning as mayor in 2000, Watson become president and CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission, then turned to provincial politics and captured the Ottawa West-Nepean riding for the Liberals in the 2003 Ontario election.
He was re-elected in 2007 and held several cabinet portfolios during his time at Queen’s Park, including Health Promotion, Municipal Affairs and Housing and Consumer and Business Services.
Watson then left provincial politics and was elected as Ottawa’s mayor in 2010 and again in 2014.
with files from The Canadian Press
