As Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson approaches the last weeks of his final term in office, the Charlatan spoke with him at city hall about highs and lows from his tenure and the legacy he’s made for himself in Canada’s capital.
Upon his last election in 2018, Watson, now 61, decided this would be his final run. Having accomplished everything he set out to do when first elected in 2010, he also noted the burdens of the Freedom Convoy, derecho storm and “all-consuming” COVID-19 pandemic turned his final four years at city hall into exhausting ones.
But he said the revitalization of Lansdowne Park—what was a “30-acre parking lot with bad, cruddy asphalt and a bunch of rundown buildings”—has “worked out really well.” Watson explained how he successfully pushed for underground parking there to accommodate venue size and preserve the surrounding fields, tree canopy and apple orchard.
“I was able to take a lot of projects that had frustrated previous councils and get them implemented, once and for all.”
Another highlight from his tenure was tourism-heavy 2017, when Ottawa hosted the Grey Cup and Junos and saw record event attendance, airport traffic and hotel occupancy. Watson also pointed to the 2018 reopening of the Ottawa Art Gallery, after its expansion from the “dingey old little” Arts Court building in 2010, as an example of decades of discussion turned into action.
“I was able to take a lot of projects that had frustrated previous councils and get them implemented, once and for all,” he said, adding he lives by Nike’s “just do it” motto.
Reviving the LRT
Big projects Watson hopes the next council can finish include the LeBreton Flats library and event centre developments, the new Ottawa Hospital campus near Dow’s Lake and LRT Stage 3. He also remains confident that the O-Train, whose complications he called supplier-induced, will regain its ridership in the coming years as it expands to dozens of new destinations.
“Up until the lightning strike—you can’t predict a lightning strike—we were at 99 per cent on-time service for the train,” he said, adding that social media users can be critical of minor delays.
Having grown up in Montreal and lived in Toronto as an MPP, Watson said public transit issues are commonplace across Canada. He added the public underestimated how complex an LRT expansion running through urban neighbourhoods would prove.
A mayor of the people
Known to attend many community events, Watson said his office received roughly 5,000 invitations annually before the pandemic to witness everything from church bazaars, to office openings and service launches.
“The least I can do is show up with a plaque and cut the ribbon and tell them we’re proud of their investment and wish them the very best.”
“It’s a nice office I have, but you shouldn’t spend all your time in here because you get trapped in the bubble,” said Watson, who used to canvas between elections. “If someone’s putting their life savings into opening a small restaurant on Preston Street, the least I can do is show up with a plaque and cut the ribbon and tell them we’re proud of their investment and wish them the very best.”
He described how he’s made being publicly accessible his calling card. After first getting elected to office, for example, he ate lunch at Carleton’s cafeteria with the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) executives. Watson previously served as president of RRRA while pursuing a BA in mass communications at Carleton in the early 1980s.
“My first brochure when I ran at Carleton said, ‘Students are adored during elections and ignored between them.’ I just didn’t want to sort of be that guy that didn’t show up for four years because he was too busy.”
When asked about regrets from the last four years, he said he prefers to think about what he was able to change as mayor. This included installing segregated bike lanes, investing in green technology, turning incandescent traffic lights to LEDs, electrifying the OC Transpo bus fleet and generating hydropower for 20,000 homes with Chaudière Falls.
An affordable Ottawa
With 10,000 Ottawans waiting in line for affordable housing, according to Watson, affordability remains a leading issue. He said his council set a record high for dollars spent on affordable housing, and he also implemented a tax increase limit of two, 2.5 and three per cent for his three consecutive terms, respectively.
“You want the city to be affordable for people of all economic backgrounds.”
“Affordability means controlling spending, controlling taxes,” he said, noting that residents often don’t know they pay property tax in their rent. “You want the city to be affordable for people of all economic backgrounds.”
Watson added he always finds it “disingenuous” when people call for free services.
“Unless the buses are going to be donated, the gas is going to be free from Alberta and the drivers are volunteers, you can’t have free transit. There’s a cost to it.”
He said rather than reducing fees for the public in general, he prefers sectoral funding that alleviates costs of living for refugees, people with disabilities, those with lower incomes, seniors and other identifiable groups in need. Watson joked that, while he might come across as the “boring guy in the room at a party,” he’s prioritized stability and predictability in providing key municipal services to the public.
“Unfortunately, municipalities have the lowest voter turnout, even though we affect the public more often than the federal and provincial government,” he said, adding that citizens often take for granted city services such as hydro, water, roads, transit, recreation and libraries.
Finding a new mayor
A struggle Watson foresees this election is getting good-hearted people to run for office in a world plagued with the nastiness of social media. While still unsure which mayoral candidate or candidates he’ll endorse to take his place, he said he likes the variety of options this election but thinks some of them, “quite frankly, are not serious candidates.”
“We have to change that. This is a $5-billion corporation. It’s not a joke and it’s not to be taken lightly. It’s an added responsibility, being the nation’s capital, where you greet world leaders.”
“This is a $5-billion corporation. It’s not a joke and it’s not to be taken lightly.”
He said a proper nomination process and 500-signature requirement, rather than the current quota of 25, would dissuade less “serious” candidates. Watson described his time at an all-candidates meeting in 2010 where he’d forget what questions were asked due to the frivolous responses of his competitors.
“It takes away some of the seriousness of the issues that we’re facing, whether it’s climate change or housing or public safety. We’re a big city now. We turned a million [in population] just two or three years ago, and with that comes big-city problems.”
He acknowledged that racism, sexism and transphobia continue to stand on display here and said there’s work to do to make the city an “even more special place.” A fan of Lord Robert Baden-Powell’s scout motto, “always leave the campsite in better shape than you found it,” Watson said he feels proud to be leaving Ottawa in better shape compared to when he first arrived at city hall 12 years ago.
“Hopefully the next mayor will take it to the next level and adopt some of the same philosophy that they want to leave their successor—a city that’s in better shape fiscally, socially, culturally and economically.”
Featured image by Evert Lindquist.
