FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE: Horizon Ottawa Announces Eight Endorsements for OCDSB Trustee
OTTAWA - This morning, Horizon Ottawa announced endorsements for eight school board trustee candidates for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. This follows an announcement in August of the organization’s endorsements of city councillors.
Horizon Ottawa’s membership worked with the Rideau Students Union (RSU), an organization consisting of high school students advocating for progressive policy at the school board level, to come up with its suggested list of endorsements.
“The RSU is happy to collaborate with Horizon Ottawa to endorse progressive trustee candidates who will listen to the voice of students and their communities” said Owen Oussoren, Co-President of the Rideau Students’ Union. “It is essential that we push to elect trustees who can act in the best interest of students to create and maintain safe and open learning environments.”
The race for school board trustee is particularly significant this election due to the alarming rise in candidates openly displaying transphobic and bigoted views. Shannon Boschy, a candidate in Zone 6, likened trans people to a “dangerous social contagion.” Horizon Ottawa encourages its membership and residents across the city to vote and volunteer for trustees committed to a safe and inclusive classroom environment.
“One of our fundamental goals at Horizon Ottawa is to ensure our city becomes a place that truly welcomes and supports all of its residents not the very few who hold hateful views - the politics espoused by some of the candidates running this year stand in direct opposition to that core principle,” said Jaime Sadgrove, a Horizon Ottawa member. “Teachers, students, parents and school staff were largely abandoned during the pandemic and we have since learned Doug Ford spent millions of dollars less than what was budgeted for during the last year. We need trustees who will fight for our public education system.”
The list of endorsed trustee candidates is available on the Horizon Ottawa website.
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For Media Inquiries:
Sam Hersh
[email protected]
613-663-7018
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE: Horizon Ottawa Releases Donor Information from Osgoode By-election Candidates
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09 June 2025
OTTAWA - Horizon Ottawa has released information about how candidates in the Osgoode by-election have financed their campaigns in an effort to improve transparency. The organization has consistently called on candidates to refuse contributions from the development industry based on the perception that this could create a conflict of interest when elected officials are tasked with decisions that would affect developer profits. The City of Ottawa already requires candidates to release a list of all donations over $100 following the election, but Horizon also stresses the importance of voters having access to this information before casting their ballot.
Of the eleven candidates registered in the by-election, Horizon was able to contact ten, six of whom responded to the request. Horizon’s findings can be seen in this chart:
Three candidates: Dalton Holloway, Jennifer van Koughnett, and Peter Westaway provided a list of their donors and were verified to have not received any funding from those connected to the development industry.
Greg Vail provided a list of donors and was found to have received two $100 contributions from donors who could be construed to be connected to the real estate development industry.
Isabelle Skalski and Dan O’Brien both claim to have received no developer-related funding, but did not disclose a list of their donors.
Doug Thompson, Colette Lacroix Velthuis, Guy Boone, and Bobby Gulati did not respond to Horizon’s request. While this does not necessarily mean that their campaigns were funded by developer-connected donors, Osgoode Ward residents will not have access to this information before selecting a councillor.
Horizon encourages each of these candidates to show voters that transparency matters to them and to make this information publicly available before election day on June 16th.
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For media inquiries:
English
Tom Ledgley
613-663-7018
French
Sam Hersh
613-663-7018
