Knoxdale-Merivale: Devine — First, Ottawa councillors must learn to work together

Differences are merely the starting point for discussion, not an excuse to close the door and cease dialogue.

The Citizen invited candidates in the Oct. 24 municipal election to share their thoughts:

There have been few times that I’ve been more frustrated as a citizen of Ottawa than while watching a city council meeting in February 2022, during the chaotic weeks of civil unrest that paralyzed our downtown core and tarnished the credibility of our city’s institutions.

At a time when Ottawa was being seen as a case study for mishandling an emergency, what we witnessed during that council meeting was the complete dysfunction of elected representatives, whose sole concern should have been working together to address the crisis at hand. But as anyone who has observed Ottawa’s city council over the past few years knows, the divisiveness on display in that February meeting was the byproduct of a council having long abandoned any spirit of collaboration. And it had been years in the making.

There are going to be many new voices around the council table this term. Almost half of our councillors, plus the mayor, will be new to the position. I hope to be one of them, in my pursuit to be the councillor for Ward 9 / Knoxdale-Merivale.

While I certainly have specific goals when it comes to the many issues affecting my ward and my city, there is something more fundamental that I wish to work on first. I want to play a role in starting the next term of council off on the right foot. I want to help change the culture at city hall, so that all councillors — and the mayor — see themselves as colleagues first, not political opponents. Basically, I want to start with a clean slate, so that we can get to work together on addressing our city’s many challenges.

Naturally, like every other councillor, I’ll come to the table with my own values, positions and beliefs. And the residents of Ward 9 will often see things differently than the residents of another ward. But those differences are merely the starting point for discussion, not an excuse to close the door and cease dialogue. When councillors treat each other with pettiness and hostility, it increases the cynicism and lack of trust that Ottawa’s residents have in city hall. The next term of council must put an end to this.

Through my prior history of political work, and especially through my former role as the president of the Trend Arlington Community Association (where I’ve had to facilitate and mediate many community consultations filled with opposition), I believe that one of my strengths is as a relationship builder. To me, compromise is not a bad word, but a place where opposing sides can meet in the middle so that something gets done. So that progress is made.

Ottawa is facing many crises: unreliable public transit, the lack of housing, decaying infrastructure, a spiralling debt, the unaffordability of everything, the consequences of climate change. We can’t allow for our failures in governance to be a crisis unto itself. There’s too much work that needs to be done.

For more, please visit my site at www.seandevine.ca

1. 

   Here are the candidates for the 2022 Ottawa municipal election

2. 

   How and where to vote in the 2022 Ottawa municipal election