"Leadership That Listens" Is Not a Plan. Here's What I've Put on the Record Instead.
Turnout is roughly four in ten. So who is a councillor actually listening to?
Roughly four in ten eligible Ottawa voters cast a ballot in a municipal election. When a councillor says "I listen," the question is: to whom?
Who is in the room
Most consultation runs through people who show up: association boards, regular meeting-goers, the neighbours who email. They do valuable, unpaid work. They are also a small, self-selected group, older and more settled than the ward as a whole. Renters, newcomers, shift workers, and the people who would live in housing that hasn't been built yet are rarely there.
Research on planning meetings backs this up. In Neighborhood Defenders, Einstein, Palmer, and Glick found that attendees are older, more likely to own homes, and far more opposed to new housing than residents generally. A councillor who listens to whoever shows up is not neutral. That councillor is amplifying the status quo.
Listening is not deciding
You can see the problem in the Eastern Bridge file. As of September 22, the federal registry listed 241 comments, mostly opposed to the Aviation Parkway corridor. That is real and it deserves weight, but it measures the intensity of people who live next to the route. The broader NCC survey of 5,113 people ranked getting trucks out of downtown as the top benefit, at 38.5%.
Both publics are real. A councillor who "listens" to only one has picked a side without saying so.
Meanwhile, the federal government has committed $221 million to pre-construction. Council voted 23–2 to ask for a longer comment window, with wording that avoided taking a position on the bridge itself. Asking for more time is easy. Deciding what Ward 13 should demand before the design freezes is harder, and that is the job.
What "on the record" looks like
A slogan can't be checked. A proposal can. Here is what I have published, each with a specific ask and a way to check it.
| Proposal | What can be checked | Read it |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Bridge: seven conditions | A truck rule, grade-separated crossings, noise and air standards, a rebuilt 417/Montreal Road junction, Montfort access, a funded community-benefit protocol, transit and a path on opening day. | #535 |
| Ward Issues Map | Fifteen issues across the ward's community associations, with my estimates labelled as judgment calls so residents can correct them. | #536 |
| Design, not sentiment | Traffic circles at St-Laurent/Hemlock and Beechwood/Vanier. A median-strip protected bike lane on St-Laurent. Flashing crossing beacons on Aviation Parkway. | #527, #510 |
| Buy the outcome, not the committee | On human trafficking: a bed, a worker, and a weekly income, with the cost logic shown, instead of another advisory body. | #438 |
| Make the audience visible | Rogers TV debate views are public. Ours sits at 850, about 3.0% of 2022's eligible electors. | #511 |
| Twenty-four wards to twelve | Fewer councillors and larger wards, with the representation tradeoff stated up front. | Campaign blog |
Commitments versus intentions
Being honest means separating what I can promise from what I can only pursue. I can promise process: publish my reasoning, report back on votes, and explain when I go against what residents asked. I can't promise outcomes that depend on a council majority. On this council, urban wards are outvoted 16–9 on many files, and I won't pretend otherwise. What I can promise is to show up with a written list, and to tell you when I lose.
The fair counterargument
Community associations are often the only organized channel a neighbourhood has. Dismissing them would swap an imperfect feedback loop for none. My argument is to widen the inputs, not shrink them: surveys, building lobbies, multilingual outreach, and published, dated positions that anyone, including people who never attend a meeting, can read and hold against me in 2028.
This is the sequel to Leadership that listens or leadership that's told. That post named the problem. This one puts the proposals beside it.
Sources: IAAC registry (project 90709) as of September 22, 2026; NCC Round 1 survey (5,113 responses); Rogers TV debate views compiled September 12–24, 2026; Einstein, Palmer & Glick, Neighborhood Defenders (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Ward Issues Map percentages are the author's estimates, not measured data.
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