Ottawa mayor looking forward to breaking ground on major projects, seeing fresh council in 2022
Mayor Jim Watson says ongoing light rail issues and a divide around the council table did not play into his decision not to seek re-election in 2022.
While speaking on CityNews' The Sam Laprade Show, Friday, December 10, just hours after he announced he would not run in next fall's municipal election, he did make one admission, however.
“It's been an overwhelming time to be mayor,” Watson said, as he spoke about the LRT being built at the same time the city dealt with a pair of major floods, tornadoes and then a pandemic.
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This year has seen the mayor take criticism over a number of issues such as the LRT project, and most recently, the police budget.
“While I don't agree with a lot of what is said by certain members of council, I respect the fact that they have a mandate, as I have a mandate,” the mayor explained. “They have a different perspective. And I think there's a level of frustration that I have been able to successfully work with a majority on council to get our agenda through, to keep taxes at a reasonable level.”
Watson hasn't thought too much about what's next for him yet.
“If some offers come my way in the next phase of my career, I'll look at them. If not, I'd love to get back to doing a lot more volunteering,” he explained. It's what I used to do before I was mayor and I just haven't had time — whether it's serving meals at the Shepherds of Good Hope or sitting on a couple of community or not-for-profit boards.”
In the meantime, the mayor says there's still a lot of work for him to do as mayor in 2022, such as shepherding through projects like the new Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus and seeing construction begin on the new central public library branch.
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“Someone told me today, you're now a statesman instead of a politician, so maybe I'll have more sway instead of less sway,” he joked. “A lot of people who never agreed with me have sent me some very kind notes over the last few hours. And lots of people that, you know, are happy to see me go, so you take the good with the bad.”
Watson is also interested to see how the mayoral campaign plays out in Ottawa over the next year. He believes his announcement will act as a bit of a catalyst for people who were thinking of running.
“I feel that I would do very well in an election, but it's time to move on and I think sometimes it's good to have new and fresh and different perspectives, not simply people who have been around the council table for 25 or 30 years.”
Long-time City Councillor Diane Deans is making an announcement at 3 p.m., Friday, at City Hall. Catherine McKenney has also signalled an intention to run, as well as former Ottawa area politician Bob Chiarelli.
“While I don't agree with a lot of what is said by certain members of council, I respect the fact that they have a mandate, as I have a mandate, they have a different perspective. And I think there's a level of frustration that I have been able to successfully work with a majority on council to get our agenda through, to keep taxes at a reasonable level.”
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Listen to Mayor Watson's full conversation with Sam Laprade:
