Check the Voters' List by Sunday, September 20, 4:30 p.m. After that, you can still fix your details at the voting place. ottawa.ca/vote
Vérifiez la liste électorale d'ici le dimanche 20 septembre, 16 h 30. Ensuite, les corrections se font au bureau de vote. ottawa.ca/vote
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.
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.
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.
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.
311 service tickets
On paper
Tickets closed.
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.
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.
This is not a popularity contest
A structural outsider with a method, against an incumbent with a brand.
Read itShowing 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.
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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