Catherine McKenney has proudly served as a two-term Councillor for Somerset Ward, and is now running to represent you as Mayor of Ottawa.
Catherine has roots in both Ottawa’s downtown and the suburbs, having lived in Kanata and worked for former Councillor Alex Munter. They also worked as a Strategic Advisor to the Deputy City Manager.
Catherine has fought for accountability, transparency and stronger democracy at City Hall. They are ready to put their experience to work, and to work with you as your Mayor.
Catherine lives in West Centretown with their wife and daughter. Catherine is an avid volunteer in our community, and a runner who enjoys Ottawa’s beautiful trails. They cycle year-round, walk and take the LRT to work, support local independent businesses, and have proudly adopted Humane Society animals.
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Tessa Franklin grew up in Rockland, ON, and moved to Ottawa in 2016 to pursue a career in the music industry. She spent several years working for local concert promoter, Spectrasonic. Since leaving Spectrasonic, Tessa has been keeping busy building a not-for-profit to support women in the music industry and advocating for better support for veterans. Her platform highlights things such as improvements to active and public transit, support for small businesses, increased community consultation, protection for greenspaces such as Petrie Island and the creation of a Veterans Food Bank. The core of her platform is accountability and transparency. On account of this, Tessa is turning down developer donations and has committed to releasing a list of donors over $100 the week before election day. Tessa is excited to connect with residents and work to build a city where we’re neighbours, not customers.
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Lori Stinson (she/they) has been a resident of the Ottawa/Gatineau area for over 20 years; most recently as a single-parent resident of Orleans Ward 2 for the last 12 years, and now the proud parent of 3 independent adults. While her children were growing, she coached girls recreational soccer in Chelsea and with the Gloucester Hornets, was a regular volunteer in school lunch programs and sat on parent/teacher councils. Throughout this time she was a small business owner/operator in Gloucester and Chelsea/Wakefield, and has been teaching and researching in post-secondary education in Ottawa for over 18 years. Throughout her life, and residence in Ottawa, she has been a concerned, committed and active participant in a variety of related community, social, criminal and environmental justice issues and movements.
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Kevin Hua is a 21-year-old university student and the son of Chinese immigrants who has been a lifelong resident of Stittsville where he grew up and lives with his family in Timbermere. He has served as the federal NDP candidate in Stittsville in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, first running as one of the youngest candidates in 2019 at 18 and going toe to toe against Pierre Poilievre twice.
Kevin is entering his 4th year studying Public Affairs and Policy Management with a specialisation in Public Policy and Administration (Social Policy) and a minor in Law at Carleton University. During his studies at Carleton, he was also a staff writer for the Kroeger Policy Review, writing policy briefs and opinion pieces on public policy issues affecting Canada and the local community.
Kevin is currently working in a co-op position in the public service with Service Canada and has previously completed a co-op placement in the public service again with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. He has also volunteered with and worked as an Office Secretary in the OCSB’s International and Indigenous Languages Program as well as having volunteered with Around the Campfire, a local organization that provides fun and supportive socialization experiences for neurodivergent youth.
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Laine lives in College Ward with her husband and two children. As a long-term resident of Ottawa, her community involvement and career have focused on helping people create the communities and the city they want.
She has held leadership roles with Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation (CCOC), which works to create, maintain and promote housing for people with low and moderate incomes, and Synapcity, a non-profit dedicated to creating an inclusive culture of participation for the city of Ottawa.
Her primary focus has been to identify and dismantle barriers that prevent community participation in decision-making. She believe that communities deserve a say in how they evolve and grow over time.
She wants to use my leadership skills and experience building communities to represent College Ward on City Council.
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Sean Devine is a community leader in Trend Arlington, where he’s served for many years as president of his community association. Sean played a key role in the recovery effort after the 2018 tornado, for which he was recognized with the United Way’s Community Builder of the Year Award, and the Mayor’s City Builder Award. Sean has spent three decades working in the arts & culture sector, as a playwright, producer, manager of non-profit arts organizations, and arts funding officer. He has run for federal office twice as the NDP candidate for Nepean. He lives in Trend Arlington with his wife and their four young children.
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Dr. Laura Shantz is a researcher, part-time University of Ottawa professor, an active community member, and now, she is your progressive candidate for Ottawa city council in Rideau-Vanier.
Laura is a 13-year resident of Vanier, where she lives with her partner Craig, their two boys, and their very friendly cat Martha. She has held a wide range of positions, including in advocacy, policy development, research, and community engagement.
While working at emergency shelters in downtown Ottawa, Laura saw how important it was to be able to connect with people in their first language. She set out to learn French and is now fluently bilingual, and so are her children.
She grew up in a rural area where she learned to value community support and taking care of neighbours. As a student at the University of Ottawa, Laura lived in abject poverty. She worked difficult, low-paying jobs to put herself through school and pay her rent and often was left with almost no money to pay for food.
Her deep sense of justice, fairness, equity, and inclusion led her to pursue a Ph.D. in criminology, studying women over the age of fifty experiencing homelessness. She appreciates and values that each person experiences life differently. Laura is committed to meeting the needs of Ottawa’s diverse community, including by drawing on her own lived experience with autism.
Laura envisions Rideau-Vanier as a community where everyone can thrive and succeed together. A place where taking care of each other and treating each person with dignity and respect are defining values. To Laura, it is vitally important for the lived realities of people in her ward to be brought to city hall. She will ensure that the issues that matter to her constituents receive the attention they deserve.
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As a volunteer, Ariel has helped sponsor and support refugees and asylum seekers, learning first-hand how hard it can be to find affordable housing and mental health resources in our city. She also helped hundreds of people book vaccine appointments over the last two years and has been involved in LGBTQ+ activism for more than 20 years.
During the pandemic, she has been a frequent commentator on both TV and radio, largely focusing on the need for safe schools and the impacts of the February anti-vaccine convoy on residents in downtown Ottawa.
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Jeff Leiper was elected to City Council in 2014 after years of community involvement on planning, social, transportation and other advocacy issues. He has served thoughtfully on City Council's Planning Committee for two terms to argue for more balanced planning policies and to raise community over developer priorities. For four years he has stressed meaningful community engagement and prioritized sustainability and equity in City policies.
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Ethan was born in Ottawa and grew up between River Ward and Alta Vista. He has always called this city home.
He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the University of Waterloo. The first doors that he ever knocked politically were here in Ottawa, but it was in Waterloo that he began to take a serious interest in politics, volunteering on campaigns and taking action to fight climate change on campus.
Ethan has a robust background in climate policy, with experience as a climate policy analyst in the federal public service and a Masters in Climate Change from UW. He knows what it takes to respond to the climate crisis, both in building resilience and cutting our carbon pollution.
Over countless evenings and weekends, Ethan has worked on campaigns in Ottawa. He has also been a Parliamentary Assistant on the Hill, and taken leadership roles in local progressive organizations fighting for a better city.
Ethan wants to represent River Ward and bring Ottawa into the future. As our city grows, we desperately need a new and invigorated approach to politics.
If he's elected, Ethan will strive to make Ottawa a true Green New Deal city. We will invest in transit and cycling to cut emissions while improving our quality of life. We will build beautiful and green social housing for all, because we all deserve to live in homes that are not lines on a shareholder’s balance sheet. And we will make sure that our streets and neighbourhoods are safe places to grow and thrive.
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Shawn Menard is a dedicated and passionate community advocate and the incumbent councillor for Capital Ward. Shawn was raised in Ottawa and currently lives in Capital Ward with his partner and their two kids.
First elected to Council in October 2018 to represent Capital Ward on an ambitious and progressive platform, Shawn has been a tireless advocate for his community. He has fought for safer pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure, for more community input and benefits from development, for more affordable housing, for better tenant protections, for better protection of our trees and greenspace, and for more accountability and transparency on P3 contracts. At city hall, he has fought against increases to the police budget, unnecessary subsidies to developers, bailouts for wealthy corporate executives and attempts to privatize city assets.
Shawn is running for re-election because the people of Ottawa and Capital Ward deserve a city that will provide a more sustainable future for all residents: a city that is serious about climate action; a city that will rein in developer influence, contain urban sprawl and end homelessness; a city that provides safe walking and bicycling infrastructure and reliable, affordable transit; and a city that focuses on quality of life with park space, public bathrooms, mental health services, local food growth and a healthy tree canopy.
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Orléans-South-Navan resident, Yvette Ashiri is a wife, mother of two and a public servant.
Yvette has dedicated her professional and personal life to the improvement of living conditions for citizens around the globe. She is actively invested in community development and economic prosperity, as well in supporting education by promoting youth leadership. She is focusing her commitment to work for progressive crime prevention, equality in health care and access to affordable housing, public services, especially for residents who call Orléans-South-Navan home.
Yvette shares the concerns of the Orléans-South-Navan residents in Ward 19: economic growth, environmental sustainability, social equity, and positive change.
Yvette has over 16 years of experience serving the community, including as former Chair of the School Council of École Élémentaire Publique des Sentiers, and sitting on the governance committee of the Montfort Hospital. She is also on the board of directors of Collège la Cité, Les Éditions L’ Interligne and the Orléans-Cumberland community resources center. Notably, Yvette has had the honour to represent Canada as the National President of Junior Chamber International Canada (JCI) in 2021, and now holds the seat of past-President, where she will continue to provide guidance and mentorship to the new executives.
Yvette is active in several community events to advocate for human rights and for a society without violence.
Yvette has been officially recognized for her service and has received a number of awards including "Femmes Remarquables Ottawa Distinguished Women", "100 Outstanding Black Women of Canada", "Ottawa-Vanier Women Leaders", and " Regroupement Affaires Fe Diamond Award". She is an Ambassador of the Welcoming Ottawa Week (WOW) and a Bernard Grandmaître Awards Laureate.
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