James A. Durrell is a Canadian business owner, former politician and president of the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

. He served as Mayor of Ottawa from 1985 to 1991. Durrell has extensive governance experience and has served on numerous boards including the Business Development Bank of Canada, chairman of the Ottawa International Airport's Board of Directors, and chairman of the Ottawa Convention Centre. He also sat on the Ottawa Police Services Board. He has worked with numerous charities and organizations including the Ottawa Hospital, the United Way/Centraide Ottawa Campaign Cabinet, the Salvation Army, and the Kiwanis Club. Durrell received the Order of Canada in 2013. His Order of Canada medal capped off a year filled with tributes. In June he was awarded the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, and three months later was given the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In November, he received the Order of Ottawa. He owns Jim Durrell Capital Dodge. Durrell, an insurance executive, was elected to

Ottawa City Council The Ottawa City Council (french: Conseil municipal d'Ottawa) is the governing body of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is composed of 24 city councillors and the mayor. The mayor is elected at large, while each councillor represents war ...

in 1980. When long serving mayor

Marion Dewar Marion Hilda Dewar, (February 17, 1928 – September 15, 2008) was a prominent member of the New Democratic Party (NDP), mayor of Ottawa from 1978 to 1985 and a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1987 to 1988. Early life Dewar was ...

retired Durrell defeated Marlene Catterall running on a right-of-centre platform. During his time as mayor Durrell was most closely involved in professional sports. He worked to obtain tax grants for the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team, encouraged a Triple A baseball team to locate in Ottawa, and most notably he won an

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

franchise for the city. Early in his term, he secured the

1988 Grey Cup The 76th Grey Cup was the 1988 Canadian Football League championship game that was played at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, between the BC Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Blue Bombers defeated the favoured Lions 22–21. This was the first Gre ...

for Ottawa, and was involved in Ottawa's bid for the

1994 Commonwealth Games The 1994 Commonwealth Games ( French: ''XVéme Jeux du Commonwealth'') were held in Victoria, British Columbia, from 18 to 28 August 1994. Ten types of sports were featured at the Victoria Games: athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, ...

, which were later granted to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. In 1990, Durrell ran for the presidency of the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...

, but dropped out due to a police investigation into campaign donations during the 1988 election. In December 1990, Durrell was named president of the new

team, maintaining this job and his position as mayor. However, he resigned as mayor in January 1991 due to the demands of his Senators job. He served in this role for a number of years, before being forced to leave due to the deep financial troubles of the team. He bought a car dealership called Capital Dodge Chrysler Jeep and served on a number of boards including being Chairman of the Ottawa International Airport and Chairman of the Ottawa Congress Centre. In December 2012, he was named as a Member of the Order of Canada. He was the Chair of the Ottawa Hydro Board. In early 2014, Durrell successfully fought skin cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durrell, Jim 1946 births Living people Mayors of Ottawa Ottawa-Carleton regional councillors