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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.
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 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.
Where I stand
Eight positions. Each one links to the posts behind it, so you can check my work. Links open in a new tab.
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. Just as important, 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. The incumbent opposes the bridge. I'd rather help shape it than have it built to our community without our input.
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. Since then the reasons have kept moving: bundling with a stormwater pond, protection for Fairhaven's wells, two levels of approval, redesign after redesign. 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
The approved corridor plan never tried a small circle at Hemlock, and nobody has shown the turning counts that would rule one out. Before anyone says there's no room, I'll ask for three sheets: a peak-hour turning count, a sketch with bus paths drawn over the actual parcels, and a list of property takes. For cyclists, I'm pushing a protected lane down the median, the way Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway has done since 1894.
Oversight and open data
Police oversight you can audit
The Police Services Board needs consultation before major decisions, accurate and timely reporting, and public metrics on performance and risk. I want 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. I'd report resolution, not closure, and 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 to reach a human who can change the outcome. I'd publish a public inventory of the City's AI use and have the Auditor General review it every year.
A fair share for every neighbourhood
Fund the need, then measure it
Tie funding to actual need: 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, so 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, which is why I read it alongside the Elliot Lake precedent.
Where to start reading
Over 500 posts is a lot to wade through. These are the ones that make the case best. Links open in a new tab.
This is not a popularity contest
The shortest route to my pitch: a structural outsider with a method, against an incumbent with a brand. You don't need any background to follow it.
Read the most-read postShowing 14 posts
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#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.
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#488 Ottawa Police Services: my greatest hits
The database-misuse case, the Police Services Board chair's own admission that auditing isn't robust, and the fixes I'd make.
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#353 Two warnings, one playbook
A 2020 engineering finding on the St-Laurent tunnel, flagged urgent and left unaddressed, read alongside Elliot Lake.
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#345 The 123,000-ticket finding
Original data work: 311 tickets closed in bulk, something the City hadn't surfaced itself.
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#361 AI governance issues
A proposal, not just a critique: a public inventory of City AI use, a human to appeal to, and an annual Auditor General review.
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#490 One river, two parks, no equity
A basketball court removed from Bathgate Park with no replacement, next to a full rebuild of a park in the neighbouring ward.
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#503 OCH community housing: an unfulfilled promise
Ottawa Community Housing's promises weighed against what has been delivered in Ward 13.
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#479 The field didn't shrink. The barrier did.
Seventeen candidates in the 2019 by-election, two in 2026. Why incumbency, not apathy, explains it.
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#495 Positions ledger
My whole platform in one place: 14 topics drawn from 493 posts, organized so you can find what you care about.
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#527 Traffic circle at St-Laurent and Hemlock New
A small circle could tame the Hemlock left turns. A tape measure shows what fits and what doesn't.
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#524 A Hemlock injunction should awaken the beast New
Six reasons the road is frozen, six Ontario workarounds, and an honest look at what a court would ask.
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#525 This time a real choice New
Why blocking the East End Crossing costs Ward 13 its leverage, and what 600 debate views say about local democracy.
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#526 Informed enough to tell the difference New
Why announcements keep standing in for outcomes, and what it takes to vote informed.
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#508 Ward XIII debate 2026
The 2026 Ward 13 debate, and why local debates so often vanish from view.
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, where 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 been tracking council decisions for years, and 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 and let you decide.
- Certified PMP
- Project Management Professional
- Founder, Peer Metrics
- Project management benchmarking, since 2013. peermetrics.ca
- Trained data analyst
- B.Sc. and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
- Civic writer
- Over 500 blog posts, plus Unpublished.ca
I'm running for one term.
Every date you need to vote
Monday, October 26
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By Sunday, September 20, 4:30 p.m.
Check or update your details on the Voters' List, so nothing slows you down at the polls.
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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 10 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.
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Monday, October 26
Voting Day, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at your assigned voting place. When you reach the councillor line for Rideau-Rockcliffe, I'd be grateful for your vote.
Help make this a race worth having
My main goal has been to make room for public debate in this ward, win or lose. Tell me how you'd like to help and I'll get back to you.
To contribute to the campaign, email me. Maximum contribution limits apply.
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