Incumbent Orléans South-Navan city councillor Catherine Kitts launched her re-election campaign for a second full term in office on Sept. 2 in front of more than 50 supporters and volunteers who came out to Domaine Perrault in Navan despite a steady downpour.

Kitts first ran for city council in 2018, when she finished second to Matt Luloff by just 256 votes out of a field of 10 candidates in former Orléans Ward 1.

That experience led to her running for city council again in 2018 in a special by-election in former Cumberland Ward 19 to replace Stephen Blais who had stepped down and made a successful bid to represent Orléans in the provincial legislature.

In the 2018 by-election, Kitts garnered 52 per cent of the vote despite running in a crowded field that included nine other candidates.

She successfully ran for re-election in 2022 against a much smaller field that included just two challengers and received over 76 per cent.

This time around, she has just one challenger, local businessman Jay Wing, who is the owner operator of the La Ha Tacos food truck.

Suffice it to say, Kitts is a prohibitive favour-ite to get elected a third time.

Speaking at her campaign launch, Kitts said she is running for a third term to see a number of important projects come to fruition, including the east end LRT extension, the Renaud Road realignment and the creation of a district park at the François Dupuis Recreation Centre.

“Through the hard work of the last four years, we are going to start to see it pay off. We are on the cusp of an unprecedented investment in Orléans South that I want to see through. The last term was just the beginning,” said Kitts who also recommitted herself to do everything in her power to try and prevent the ALTO high speed rail line from coming anywhere near Navan, even though it’s a federal project.

Kitts is one of four incumbent councillors in the east end who are all running for re-election starting with Beacon Hill-Cyrville city councillor Tim Tierney who is among the deans of city council.

After first getting elected in 2010 when he knocked off then incumbent Michel Bellemare, He was subsequently re-elected three times in 2014, 2018 and 2022. In both 2014 and 2022, he received more than 82 per cent of the vote.

This time around her opponents are Orléans West-Innes and Beacon Hill–Cyrville school board trustee Catherine Milburn, who is looking to make the jump to the municipal level, and Coreen Corcoran, who is deputy leader of the Ontario Libetarian Party. Neither challenger has been given much of a chance to unseat Tierney who was recently elected president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Ottawa West-Innes incumbent city coun-cillor Laura Dudas is also expected to get re-elected. After first getting elected to city council in 2018, she was re-elected in 2022 with 71.43 per cent of the vote running against two challengers.

Dudas is being challenged by two other candidates in this fall’s election
as well.

Jenna Jessop is a Junior Program Officer at the Canada Border Services Agency.

David Purchase, registered the day before the Aug. 21 cutoff. A real estate agent with EXP Realty, he a husband and young father who lives on the same street in Blackburn Hamlet he grew up on.

The fourth east end incumbent is Orléans West-Cumberland councillor Matt Luloff.

A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Luloff left the military in 2009 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He then completed a degree at the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa and worked for a number of MPs on Parliament Hill.

In 2014, he decided to throw his hat into the political ring and joined a crowded field of 10 candidates looking to replace Bob Monette in the former Orléans Ward.

A relative un-known at the time, he emerged victorious with just 23 per cent of the vote. Four years later he received over 74 per cent of the vote against just two challengers. This time around he’s running for re-election in a crowded field that includes six other candidates.

For more information about the election visit ottawa.ca and click on the City Hall button.