2006 Ottawa Municipal Election

The 2006 Ottawa municipal election was held on November 13, 2006, in Ottawa, Canada, to elect the mayor of Ottawa, Ottawa City Council and the Ottawa-Carleton Public and Catholic School Boards. The election was one of many races across the province of Ontario. See 2006 Ontario municipal elections.

The race featured three main candidates: incumbent mayor Bob Chiarelli, former Kanata councillor Alex Munter and businessman Larry O'Brien. The race began as a fight between Chiarelli and Munter, with Munter getting the edge and 2003 candidate Terry Kilrea in a close third. However, in the summer O'Brien joined the campaign, prompting Kilrea to drop out and endorse Chiarelli. However, most of Kilrea's support went to O'Brien, creating a tight three-way race. Chiarelli's support then got pulled away from the right by O'Brien and to the left by Munter and was eventually depleted, and by the last weekend before the election, O'Brien had caught up to Munter and led for the first time. This lead carried through on election day.

In the end, Munter could only win his core areas in the central part of the city, plus his former home of Kanata, while O'Brien won the rest of the city—suburban areas and the rural areas (where he did especially well). Chiarelli did not win any wards, but he did finish second in Gloucester-South Nepean with 28%. This area of the city was where his O-Train proposal was going to be built.

Results

Voter turn-out

The 2006 municipal election had one of the highest voter turn-out ratios in Ottawa's history, with 54%.

Mayor

* : Last known residence

City council

Dropped out

Kitchissippi Ward (Ward 15)
* Daniel Stringer
* Shawn Little
College Ward (Ward 8)
* Dana Barnett withdrew as per her Media Release dated Sept. 6, 2006.
Kanata South (Ward 23)
* Noel Z. Gondek withdrew and on Sept. 29, 2006.

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Trustees

Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board Trustees

Conseil des écoles catholiques de langue française du Centre-Est Trustees

Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario Trustees

Candidates for mayor

Registered candidates

Piotr Anweiler: Local businessman. President of AplusB Software Corporation.

Bob Chiarelli: Incumbent mayor, has been mayor of Ottawa since 2001, and was regional chair of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton prior. He is also a former Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament.

Robert Larter: Unknown candidate. The ''Ottawa Citizen'' reported his registered phone number was traceable to an apartment in Vanier, from where he moved away during the summer. The Citizen was unable to contact him.

Alex Munter: Former city councillor in Kanata (1991–1994), regional councillor (1994–2000) and former Ottawa city councillor (2000–2003). Ran for the Ontario New Democratic Party in Carleton in the 1990 election. Openly gay, Munter was also the co-ordinator for Canadians for Equal Marriage.

Larry O'Brien: Chairman and former CEO of Calian Technologies Ltd., an Ottawa-based company that sells technology services to industry and government.

Barkley Pollock: Twenty-seven-year-old wants to look at the possibility of a municipal income tax to increase money for the poor. Campaigned for Liberal Richard Mahoney in Ottawa Centre in the 2004 and 2006 federal elections.

Jane Scharf: Local poverty activist. She has been arrested more than once including an arrest during the Homeless Action Strike on City Hall. All charges were dropped.

Dropped out

Don Rivington: A single-issue candidate who wants an ombudsman for the city. Ran for city council in the 2003 election in Bay Ward but lost. Dropped out of the Orléans Ward