Sunday, 20 September 2026

#534 The Coronation of a "King"?

Coronation of a “King”

By Peter Karwacki, candidate for councillor in Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockcliffe)

If not for me, there would be no election. Now space has been created for the discussion of democracy and Rideau-Rockcliffe civic affairs.

This is the document Ward 13 would be holding today if I hadn’t filed my papers.

Certificate of Acclamation

Ottawa municipal election, 2026

Office: Councillor, Ward 13 Rideau-Rockcliffe
Nomination day: Friday, August 21, 2026, 2 p.m.
Nominations certified: Monday, August 24, 2026
Names filed: 1
Result: Elected by acclamation
Ballot, debate, questions: None

Not issuedA second name was filed.

An illustration of the default outcome, not an official City of Ottawa document. It names no one, because the point is the process, not the person.

What happens when nobody files

Under Ontario’s Municipal Elections Act, when the number of people nominated equals the number of seats, the clerk declares them elected. There is no vote. Nobody is asked a question. The seat is settled on paper, with no measure of what the ward thinks of the last four years and nobody on a stage to say what didn’t get done.

That is what I mean by coronation. The pun is on a surname; the point is about a process. A seat that draws no challenger never has to say its record out loud, and a ward that never hears the record has nothing to weigh.

None of this is a comment on anyone’s character. It is about defaults, and what happens when nothing interrupts them.

Seventeen names, then four, then two

When the seat was open in the 2019 by-election, 17 people filed. In 2022, with an incumbent in the race, four names were on the ballot and the incumbent won with about 80 per cent of the vote. This year there are two.

2019 by-election, open seat17

2022, incumbent running4

2026, incumbent running2

Names on the Ward 13 ballot. The dashed line marks one name, which is an acclamation.

I was on the ballot all three times, so I know the arithmetic from the challenger’s side. By my tally in earlier posts, Ottawa incumbents win re-election 100 per cent of the time, and only about 40 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot at all. Given those odds, the surprise isn’t that the field shrank. It’s that anyone files.

The ward didn’t lose 15 people’s worth of interest. What changed is the price of challenging an occupied seat.

What a second name bought

I will take the credit for ALL of these. Here is the ledger.

What a second name on the ballot changed in Ward 13
What	If no one had filed	With a second name
A vote	None. The clerk would have declared a winner on August 24.	Voters choose. Advance voting is Friday, October 16; election day is Monday, October 26.
A public debate	None.	A Rogers TV debate on September 11. It ran about 15 minutes and was light on content, and it still put both of us on the record.
The Eastern Bridge on the record	No one to raise it.	It went unmentioned until my closing remarks, where I called it the biggest infrastructure project in the ward.
The size of council	Not on the table.	I proposed cutting council from 25 wards to 12. The incumbent replied that fewer wards would be bad for democracy. I replied that only about 40 per cent of eligible voters vote now. That exchange only happens when there are two chairs.
An audience	Nothing to watch.	The debate recording stood at 452 views on September 14. When it reached 428, that was already close to half of everything the 2022 Ward 13 debate video has ever received. My campaign page has passed 4,700 views.

What I am claiming

With one name filed, there is no election. Mine was the second name.
A contested race changes what gets said in public, even in a fifteen-minute debate.
There is space now that did not exist on August 20.

What I am not claiming

That the ward needed me in particular. It just needed someone qualified and able, and the paperwork says it was me.
That the audience came for me. There was something to watch.
That the incumbent did anything wrong by filing. Sure, running again is what the system asks of him.
That you owe me a vote. Vote for whomever resonates with you! Validate them! The space I created is what I’m asking you to use.

What the space is for

A space for democracy is only worth what gets put into it. A ballot lets you ask questions a certificate of acclamation never would. Here are three I’d put to anyone asking for your vote:

Does your record on transit oversight show up in committee seats, or only in public statements?
On the Eastern Bridge, will Ward 13 negotiate mitigation while the federal comment period is open, or wait for it to be decided elsewhere? I’ve argued for the first in The Deadline Doesn’t Matter. The Bridge Still Does.
Why is a basketball court at Bathgate Park dug up for trees when a park across the river got a new one? I’ve laid out the comparison in One River, Two Parks, No Equity.

I’m not the only one who can ask them. I’m the reason there is somewhere to ask.

One more difference between a throne and a seat: I’ve committed to serving one term and that's it. A seat is a loan from the ward, not a title.

Use it

Advance voting day is Friday, October 16. Election day is Monday, October 26, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Vote for whoever you think has earned it. But vote, and read, and ask. A coronation is what a ward gets when nobody steps up. This year, I did.

Sources and notes

2019 by-election field (17 candidates): CBC Ottawa, “17 candidates crowd ballot for Rideau-Rockcliffe byelection”
2022 field (four candidates): CBC Ottawa, “Rideau-Rockcliffe incumbent faces 2nd vote in 3 years”
2026 field (two candidates) and the incumbent’s 2022 share of about 80 per cent: CTV News Ottawa, “Meet the candidates for councillor in Ward 13 Rideau-Rockcliffe”
Nomination day, certification day, and voting dates: CTV News Ottawa, Ottawa Election 2026 key dates
Acclamation rules: Municipal Elections Act, 1996 (Ontario)
Debate and campaign-page view counts were read from the public video and site pages on September 14. The incumbent win rate, turnout figure, and council-vote patterns come from my earlier posts.

Peter Karwacki, candidate for councillor, Ward 13 Rideau-Rockcliffe. peterkarwacki.blogspot.com

Saturday, 19 September 2026

#533 The Enshitification of Municipal Politics

My campaign web page
The Enshitification of Municipal Politics

Civic Commentary & Municipal Governance

The Enshitification of Municipal Politics: Low Turnout, Incumbent Protection, and the Low-Tax Illusion

How local governance decays under the exact same mechanics as corporate platform decline—and why deferred infrastructure maintenance is paying for political survival.

If you feel like everything around you is slowly getting worse—from smaller, more expensive groceries to glitchy digital services—you aren’t imagining it. Tech writer Cory Doctorow popularized a term for this systemic decline: "enshitification." It describes the process where platforms first attract users with great service, then degrade quality to extract maximum profit once those users have nowhere else to go.

While the term originated in digital tech and consumer products, the exact same structural decay has quietly taken hold of municipal politics. When citizens are treated as captive consumers, local governance stops optimizing for core infrastructure and begins optimizing for political self-preservation.

1. The Low-Turnout Feedback Loop (The Captive Audience)

At the heart of municipal decay is voter turnout—or the distinct lack of it. In many cities, local election turnout regularly hovers between 25% and 40%.

When 60% to 75% of the electorate stays home, local government becomes a closed loop. The small slice of people who do vote skew heavily toward older, wealthier homeowners and organized special interest groups. This creates an echo chamber where councilors operate with a tiny mandate, leaving the majority of residents functionally unrepresented and disengaged.

2. Structurally Favored Incumbents

Incumbency in municipal politics carries massive structural advantages. Without the partisan party labels that exist at higher levels of government, municipal voters rely almost entirely on name recognition and local exposure.

Resource Asymmetry: Incumbents leverage municipal staff, constituent newsletters, and official events funded by taxpayers to maintain year-round visibility.
Network Effects: Campaign donations and donor networks naturally flow toward sitting councilors who control zoning decisions, procurement contracts, and localized funding.

The result is a political monopoly where accountability vanishes because real electoral competition is virtually impossible.

3. The Low-Tax Illusion and the Hidden Deficit

Nothing illustrates municipal enshitification better than the classic mayoral campaign slogan: "I kept your property taxes capped at 3%."

On paper, a modest tax cap looks like fiscal discipline. In reality, when inflation, labor, and material costs rise faster than 3%, that tax cap is a delusion. To pay for it, cities quietly defer ongoing maintenance on roads, water mains, transit tracks, and culverts. They run down the city’s asset reserves to fund current operating costs, building up a massive, invisible infrastructure deficit.

The incumbent gets the short-term political win—winning re-election by bragging about low taxes—while kicking a catastrophic, multi-million dollar repair bill down the road for future generations to pay.

4. Performative Governance Over Core Execution

As core infrastructure crumbles and transit systems experience service cuts or reliability failures, municipal councils frequently pivot to performative politics.

Symbolic resolutions, photo-op announcements, and lengthy debates over non-binding declarations take center stage because they cost nothing and signal virtue to active activist bases. Meanwhile, the unglamorous work of running a city—paving roads, maintaining transit, and upgrading stormwater management—is neglected.

Breaking the Cycle

Reversing municipal enshitification requires changing the structural incentives that protect bad habits:

Mandatory Asset Depreciation Reporting: Forcing municipal budgets to account for infrastructure wear-and-tear in real time, making deferred maintenance impossible to hide behind a tax cap.
Electoral Reform: Aligning local election timing or adopting rank-choice voting to break incumbent monopolies and drive higher voter turnout.
Focusing on Core Execution: Demand that local representatives prioritize operational delivery and asset stewardship over symbolic politics.

Peter Karwacki is running for Ward 13 (Rideau–Rockcliffe) in Ottawa's October 2026 municipal election.

This time around, inform yourselves, vote differently, vote wisely.

Vote for Peter Karwacki for Rideau Rockcliffe.

#532 Peter Karwacki for Rideau-Rockcliffe

Equity? don't talk to me about equity. After 7 years? there is no equity.

Peter Karwacki for Rideau-Rockcliffe, Ward 13 — this time, a real choice Skip to content

Ottawa City Council · October 26, 2026

This time, a real choice.

Overbrook · Manor Park · New Edinburgh · Rockcliffe Park · Lindenlea · Wateridge · Carson Grove · Cardinal Glen · Viscount Alexander Park

I'm Peter Karwacki. I'm a project manager and data analyst running in Ward 13. I read the reports, track the votes, and check whether what was announced actually got built. Then I publish what I find in plain language, with the sources.

See where I stand Make a voting plan 2026 crossing clip

Voting Day: Monday, October 26, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday, October 26

The gap isn't intelligence. It's information.

Informed democracy isn't a passive condition. It's a maintenance task.

From post #526

Nobody votes for an undeliverable promise on purpose. They vote for it because a council motion and a finished project look the same in a newsletter, and a meeting attended looks like a problem solved.

Roughly four in ten eligible Ottawa voters cast a municipal ballot.
Incumbents almost always win when they run again.
Seventeen candidates ran here in the 2019 by-election. In 2026, two. Why that matters

That's a design problem, not a voter problem. My job is translation: taking the public record that is technically available but practically invisible, and making it usable before you mark a ballot.

Incumbent on the crossing

Opposes the proposed East End Crossing.

My position

Negotiate it. A flat no gives up dedicated transit lanes, a lowered right-of-way, noise walls, and emergency access to Montfort.

Where I stand

Eight positions. Each one links to the posts behind it, so you can check my work.

Streets and bridges

East End Crossing: negotiate, don't just refuse

I support the proposed bridge because it can take heavy truck traffic off downtown streets. A flat no gives up the leverage to write protections into the design: dedicated cross-river transit lanes, a lowered right-of-way with noise walls along the Aviation Parkway, and direct emergency access to Montfort Hospital.

Hemlock Road: a decision date, not another winter

The Wateridge link to Hemlock in Manor Park was supposed to be a public street by 2019. The reasons have kept moving. Each has a workable Ontario answer. I'll press the City and Canada Lands Company for the complete submission record and a date for a decision.

St-Laurent: slow the turns, protect the riders

Before anyone says there's no room for a small circle at Hemlock, I'll ask for three sheets: a peak-hour turning count, a sketch with bus paths over the actual parcels, and a list of property takes. For cyclists, a protected lane down the median.

Oversight and open data

Police oversight you can audit

Consultation before major decisions, accurate reporting, and public metrics on performance and risk. Annual independent audits, and real protection for the people inside who spot problems first.

311 that counts what got fixed

An audit found 123,000 tickets closed in bulk rather than resolved one at a time. A closed ticket is not a fixed problem. Report resolution, not closure. Build on 311 instead of launching another app.

AI at City Hall, out in the open

If software helps decide something about you, you should be able to find out, and reach a human who can change the outcome. A public inventory of City AI use, reviewed each year by the Auditor General.

A fair share for every neighbourhood

Fund the need, then measure it

Quarterly neighbourhood-level food insecurity numbers and inflation-indexed support for community services. In housing, focus on core housing need where it's worst, keep growth from eating green space and farmland, and back 15-minute neighbourhoods.

Parks that match the promises

Bathgate Park lost its basketball court with no replacement, while a park in the neighbouring ward got a full rebuild. Equity shows up at the park gate. I track what each neighbourhood was promised against what it received.

#490 One river, two parks

Announcements are easy. Delivery is checkable.

Three places where the paper trail and the street don't match.

Hemlock Road

On paper

A public street connecting Wateridge to Manor Park by 2019.

In practice

Still unbuilt. The target slid to a 2024 design hope, then a 2026 opening, and is now open-ended.

Read post #524

311 service tickets

On paper

Tickets closed.

In practice

123,000 of them were closed in bulk rather than resolved one at a time.

Read post #345

The St-Laurent tunnel

On paper

An engineering finding flagged as urgent in 2020.

In practice

Left unaddressed for years. The station sits in this ward; the disruption will too.

Read post #353

Where to start reading

Over 500 posts is a lot. These make the case. Watch the short clip first if you only have a minute.

Most-read post

This is not a popularity contest

A structural outsider with a method, against an incumbent with a brand.

Read it

Showing 14 posts

#487 The Bridge: The King and I
The one big issue where the incumbent and I disagree, with a paper trail that starts in 2019.
#488 Ottawa Police Services
Database misuse, a board chair's admission that auditing isn't robust, and the fixes I'd make.
#353 Two warnings, one playbook
A 2020 finding on the St-Laurent tunnel, flagged urgent and left sitting.
#345 The 123,000-ticket finding
311 tickets closed in bulk — work the City hadn't surfaced itself.
#361 AI governance issues
A public inventory, a human to appeal to, and an annual Auditor General review.
#490 One river, two parks
A court removed at Bathgate; a full rebuild next door.
#503 OCH community housing
Promises weighed against what has been delivered in Ward 13.
#479 The field didn't shrink
Seventeen candidates in 2019, two in 2026. Incumbency, not apathy.
#495 Positions ledger
The platform in one place.
#527 Traffic circle at St-Laurent and Hemlock New
A tape measure shows what fits.
#524 A Hemlock injunction New
Six reasons the road is frozen, six Ontario workarounds.
#525 This time a real choice New
Why blocking the crossing costs the ward its leverage.
#526 Informed enough to tell the difference New
Why announcements keep standing in for outcomes.
#508 Ward XIII debate 2026
Fifteen minutes, and the crossing still didn't get a straight answer.

Browse the full blog Longer campaign video

Why a project manager belongs at City Hall

I've spent my career making complicated things measurable: 13 years at IBM and Cognos, 15 in health services, and since 2013 as the founder of Peer Metrics. I help organizations use data and benchmarking to improve performance.

City Hall runs on projects: road reconstructions, transit lines, housing builds. The questions are the ones I've asked for a living. What was promised? What was delivered? What did it cost? Who checked?

I've lived in Ottawa for 30 years. I publish what I find on my blog and at Unpublished.ca. I'm not here to tell you what you want to hear. I'm here to show you what the record says.

Certified PMP: Project Management Professional
Founder, Peer Metrics: Benchmarking since 2013. peermetrics.ca
Trained data analyst: B.Sc. and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
Civic writer: 500+ posts, plus Unpublished.ca

I'm running for one term. The point is the work, not the chair.

Every date you need to vote

Monday, October 26

Sunday, September 20, 4:30 p.m.

Last chance to check or update the Voters' List online. After that, bring ID and fix it at the voting place.
Mail-in applications closed September 15

Special mail-in applications are no longer being accepted. Completed kits already issued must arrive by 8 p.m. on October 16.
Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4

Special Advance Voting, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Vote at any of the citywide "anywhere voting" locations, wherever you live in Ottawa.
Friday, October 16

Advance Voting Day, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at your assigned voting place. Last day for completed mail-in ballots to be received.
Monday, October 26

Voting Day, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at your assigned place. On the councillor line for Rideau-Rockcliffe, I'd be grateful for your vote.

Find your voting place

Who can vote?

You must be a Canadian citizen, 18 or older on October 26, and a resident of Ottawa — or a non-resident owner or tenant of property here, or their spouse. You cannot be prohibited from voting by law.

What if I'm not on the list?

Until Sunday at 4:30 p.m., use ottawa.ca/vote. After that, you can still be added at the voting place with identification that shows your name and current address.

Do I need the letter in the mail?

No. The voter notification letter is helpful, but identification is what matters at the table.

Help make this a race worth having

The main goal is public debate in this ward, win or lose. Tell me how you'd like to help. If you can take a lawn sign this weekend, say so — that's the highest-leverage hour we have left before advance polls.

To contribute, email the campaign. Ontario municipal contribution limits apply. This campaign is not listed on the city's contribution rebate program page.

Follow along

Community associations

Vote plan Volunteer

#531 Peter Karwacki for Rideau Rockcliffe

Peter Karwacki for Rideau-Rockcliffe, Ward 13: this time, a real choice Skip to content

This time, a real choice.

I'm Peter Karwacki, running for city council in Ward 13, Rideau-Rockcliffe. I'm a project manager and data analyst. I read the reports, track the votes, and check whether what was announced actually got built. Then I publish what I find in plain language, with the sources.

See where I stand Watch the campaign video

Voting Day: Monday, October 26, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday, October 26

The gap isn't intelligence. It's information.

Informed democracy isn't a passive condition. It's a maintenance task.

From post #526, "Informed enough to tell the difference"

Roughly 40% of eligible Ottawa voters cast a ballot in a typical municipal election.
Incumbents win essentially every time they run.
Seventeen candidates ran in the 2019 by-election for this seat. In 2026, two. Why that matters

That's a design problem, not a voter problem. Nobody has time to audit a police board or read a transit oversight report on a Tuesday afternoon. My job, as I see it, is translation: taking the parts of the public record that are technically available but practically invisible, and making them usable before you mark a ballot.