Tim Tierney, Laura Dudas, Matt Luloff and Catherine Kitts – collectively the four city councillors are known as the “east block” by their city council colleagues. All four are now running for re-election after filing their nomination papers with the Election Office last week.
The nomination period for mayor, city coun-cillors and school board trustees opened on May 2. As of Sunday, no one had filed to run against the four incumbents. The deadline to file is Aug. 19 at 2 p.m.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville councillor Tim Tierney is the veteran of the “east block”.
Tierney was first elected in 2010 when he upset then incumbent Michel Bellemare. He successfully ran for re-election in 2014 in 2018, garnering over 80 per cent of the vote in both elections.
Among his more notable accomplishments are securing the funding to renovate the old Potvin Arena and replacing it with the Richcraft Sensplex.
Matt Luloff (Orléans Ward) and Laura Dudas (Innes Ward) are both running for re-election for the first time since getting elected to city council in 2018. Kitts was elected to city council in a by-election in Cumberland Ward in 2020 after then-incumbent Stephen Blais successfully ran to replace Marie-France Lalonde as the local MPP.
The 2022 municipal election will be the first time east end residents will vote since the boundaries for Innes, Orléans and Cumberland wards were redrawn last year to allow for a redistribution of voters based on the growing population south and east of Orléans.
The first change voters will notice is that the names of the ridings have been changed.
Cumberland Ward 19 has been renamed as Orléans South-Navan to reflect the fact that it now extends past Mer Bleue Road in the west all the way to Anderson Road south of the Blackburn Bypass. Besides Avalon, it now encompasses Chapel Hill South, Bradley Estates and Trailsedge which used to be in Innes Ward – it no longer includes the portion of Queenswood Heights and Fallingbrook that lies south of Des Epinettes and Gardenway. Those communities are now part of Orléans East-Cumberland which now extends all the way to Canaan Road, south of Wilhaven.
The former Innes Ward is now called Orléans West-Innes. It still includes Black-burn Hamlet, Chapel Hill and Chateauneuf, but it also encompasses the area between St. Joseph Blvd. and the Ottawa River as far east as Champlain Street. The area, which includes all of Convent Glen and Orléans Wood, was formerly part of the old Orléans Ward.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville Ward 11 remains unchanged.
The changes in the other three wards will take some getting used to, both for the voters and the candidates.
While registered candidates can start campaigning once they’ve filled their nom-ination papers, most will hold off on doing any door-to-door canvassing until after the Ontario provincial election which will take place on June 2.
The meat of the municipal campaign usually doesn’t start until after Labour Day weekend, but it’s doubtful the candidates for mayor will wait that long.
With Jim Watson retiring from politics after serving in the top position for the past 12 years, the race to replace him is wide open. As of press time, five people had already registered including former Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli, who served from 2001 until 2006 when he lost the job to Larry O’Brien, and Catherine McKenney who is the current city councillor for Somerset ward having been elected to that position in 2014 and again in 2018.
Although she has not done so already, veteran city councillor Diane Deans is also expected to run for the job.