$329,000 for a by election flushed

Seven in Ten

Tomorrow is the last day of this campaign. So I’m going to say the thing I’ve been circling for months.

In April 2019, Ward 13 held a by-election. It was a second vote in six months, triggered when our councillor Nussbaum, took a new job at the NCC...in a process that must have taken months. City staff estimated it would cost $329,500. Seventeen candidates ran - including me. Turnout, on unofficial results, was 30.61%.

Each circle is one in ten eligible voters. Filled means they voted.

That means about seven in ten eligible voters in this ward stayed home.

The winner took 18.36% of the votes cast. That works out to roughly 6% of everyone eligible to vote. A councillor with a four-year term was chosen by about one in seventeen of us.

Now compare that to something you can see. The city is restoring Bathgate Park for $120,000. That’s one basketball court removed, some soil, some trees, a refreshed path.

2019 Ward 13 by-election (staff estimate)

$329,500

Bathgate Park restoration, 2026–27

$120,000

Half of the Bathgate money is parkland cash-in-lieu funding, a different pot from election costs. The comparison shows scale, not a literal trade-off.

That one by-election was budgeted at nearly three times the whole park project, and most of the ward didn’t turn up for it.

I’ll say it plainly: I call that neglect.

Some of you face real barriers. Shift work, caregiving, language, not knowing where to vote. Those are real, and fixing them is a job for the next council. But I don’t believe they explain seven in ten. Voting is the cheapest civic act there is. It costs minutes. It’s free. And it decides who controls your parks, your transit, your sidewalks and your tax dollars for four years.

When we skip it, we aren’t staying neutral. We’re handing our say to everyone else, and they take it. Incumbents in this city win every time. Urban wards get outvoted 16–9 on council. Low turnout feeds that pattern.

I’ve told you the truth throughout this campaign, because I think you’re owed it more than you’re owed comfort. This is the same truth. I don’t need this result for my livelihood or my popularity. That’s why I can say what an incumbent can’t afford to say: the people who decide this ward are the people who show up.

So show up. Not for me, if you’ve decided I’m not your choice. For the ward.

Polls are open Monday, October 26. Check ottawa.ca for your voting location. Ten minutes tomorrow beats four years of complaints.

Peter Karwacki
Candidate, Ward 13 Rideau-Rockcliffe