Front runners drag private conversations into public eye
Updated: Wed Sep. 22 2010 6:06:37 PM
ctvottawa.ca
The two front runners in Ottawa's mayor's race went on the attack Wednesday, dragging their personal conversations into the public eye.
Mayoral candidate Jim Watson publicized a private e-mail exchange with Mayor Larry O'Brien in an open letter that accused the mayor of doublespeak on supporting political parties at the municipal level.
Watson sent O'Brien the letter Wednesday, which included an e-mail exchange between the rivals in November and December 2009.
O'Brien's response to then-Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson was: "my vote is for political parties…."
O'Brien later added: "But never in public."
Watson considers e-mails public
Watson, who held onto the e-mails for months, said O'Brien can't have two views on the issue, and needs to make his position clear with voters.
"When you're running for public office, you can't have two positions: one secretly and privately, and one public. You have to be up front with the public," Watson told CTV Ottawa on Wednesday.
He added that he considered the e-mails to be public, not private correspondence.
"Any correspondence between a mayor and minister is public. It's under the Freedom of Information Act," Watson said.
O'Brien goes ahead with his own attack
When reporters questioned O'Brien about the e-mails on Wednesday, he said he'd have to go through his old messages before making a comment.
"I haven't seen it; I can't tell you. I'll have to go back through my files," said O'Brien, whose platform urges voters to elect like-minded councillors.
However, the mayor didn't stop there. He fired back with his own personal attack, alleging Watson is only running for mayor to get a "cushy" pension.
O'Brien said Watson told him that during a private meeting at the Elgin Street Diner. He said if Watson is pulling off the gloves and revealing personal conversations, so can he.
"He clearly stated to me that he wanted to come back to city council because the provincial government didn't have a pension and he wasn't a rich man," said O'Brien, who referred to Watson as a "McGuinty Henchman."
However, Watson remembers the meeting differently: "We didn't talk about pensions at all, it never came up."
"I'm taking a pay cut if I am fortunate enough to be elected. It's complete nonsense on (O'Brien's) part," said Watson.
Voters head to the polls Oct. 25.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's John Hua
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Comments are now closed for this story
taxpayer
enough of these two.
there are 8 other candidtes, how about some real reporting.
LAC
They both lie! We don't have one good or viable candidate for mayor which is a shame.
MoJo
Sparring!!!!!
Obi-Wan Kenobi, the force is with you.....
SR
The Kid games have to STOP I understand this is politics but if this is how I conducted mysef at work I would be FIRED. stop slinging mud do you guys honestly think anyone wants to vote for either of you. its sad that our choices are minimal.
WHAT ABOT THE ISSUES Men please concentrate on the issues and stop the CHILDRENS games. my daughter behaves better than the two of you
Broke Taxpayer
Watson has so much liberal baggage, he is a political has been in ottawa. People see him as a quitter and a windbag.
Windex
Comme On CTV Ottawa it is time to report on the other runners...let us learn about who should really run this city
NOMAD
I would never support someone that came from the McGuinty Governemnt. We all know how much respect they have for taxpayers.
riccardo
hey who is still supporing zero means zero when we have a credible candidate in Watson?
smarten up and support change
1mac
weelllll Mr Watson your true colours are starting to show - you are a nasty petty power hungry person - you are loosing ground on substantive issues that you have to go back years to bring up something and take it out of context - Mr. Obrien rise above this pettiness.
I want the new mayor to cut the bureaucracy, co-ordinate city projects ie road repair etc (look at the Sussex Drive nr Wellington debacle - etc -I want concrete plans ... for responsible government that affects us more in the city than any other level of government !
Travis
Dear Jim Watson,
Stop trashing your image. You're are now about one point shy of loosing my vote.
And no, I won't vote for Larry.
Still deciding on whom to vote for Barrhaven ward councilor. I'd like to see someone different this time around. I'm definitely not voting for Harder this time.
Lise
When you have to resourt to dirty pool to win votes, these two have to realize it's not what we want to hear. I now realize that neither is fit to be mayor. And unions should stay out of politics as their recommendations is not realiable or credible.
Cara
Could we pleeeeeeease have a little coverage on the other candidates. I'm not interested in either one of these two and would like to hear what others have to offer. What does Andy Haydon have to say, or Mike McGuire or some of the others. Who decided that O'Biren and Watson were the only serious choices?
Bubba says Shuddup about this nonsense!
No one cares about whether we could advance to having Political Parties in Municipal Elections.
This and similar things are of virtually no interest to anyone. What we want to see are Hydro Ottawa Rate decreases, Get the LRT done, and finish Landsdowne Park.
Then we need to dump a bunch of City Councillors who can't seem to get business done, but still manage to waste a ton of our money on stupid things, things that Candidate im Watson seems to want to continue.
So shuddup about this crap, and get onto what you will do, not what you won't.
Ronald
Politicians wonder why many people do not vote,this is the reason why. People are tired of the childish beaviour of politicians acting like children and truly want them to act like adults and stop the name calling and start working together to make this city a much better place to live into and to have things done on time in this city. I am one of them that is fed up with this childish name calling and that is why I will not be voting, they all make me sick .
Rose
Come on CTV let hear from the other runners. Enough of Watson and O'Brien.
Bubba says Don't vote, no right to complain
@Ronald: Ronald, if you don;t vote, you are implicitly giving up your right to comment or complain about whatever happen after the election.
I urge you to vote anyway, because that is how change occurs. You just never know when one vote could make a difference.
I agree with your comments though. It's time politician started acting with Trustm Truth, Honesty, Honour, Ethics, Integrity, and Do the Right Thing. If they can't manage this, then they should get the hell out of politics. Voters have clearly spoken on this. We will not longer tolerate, or vote for candidates who fail to heed our words.
The other thing we should understand is that politicians have the right to change their minds on things. Like us, they learn things along the road and some of those things will change their minds, just as we do.
In Ottawa, we have wasted the last 4 years, and tolerated a huge amount of backstabbing, delays tactics, childishness, and just plain stupidity, from City Councillors. For me, I have decided to vote for the best candidate OTHER THAN the incumbent. We need to change at least 19 of 23 of our former City Councillors. These are the guys who caused our problems, and they have now proven that just changing the mayor doesn't mean we get a change of behaviour. We put a new mayor in there, and they backstabbed him at every opportunity. Time to dump the incumbents, and get some new blood in those chairs.
cheryl
Maybe these two boys should go into time-out and come back with their big-boy pants on! They both lost my vote. Watson is whiney and O'Brien is full of it.
We need a woman mayor folks!
what are these candidates standing for?
What are these guys views on issues? All I hear about is that they don't like each other, they called each other names etc but I don't hear anything about the issues...what are they go to do for my city? Get over yourselves guys (and gals) and tell we, the voting public, why we should vote for you not why we should not vote for a guy you don't like personally! Who cares! Issues guys with actual plans of getting your plan done, that's what I want to hear! Grow up! Stop acting like 10 year old children.
MoJo
Hey Ottawa
Obi-Wan is the best that happened to Ottawa since Brian Mulroney became Prime Minister....
glenn
If all they can do is fight, vote for someone else who gives us their platform upfront.
Ronald
Dear Bubba,
if you want to vote for these people that are acting like children good for you!.
But I wish to vote for adults and so farr none of them have shown me they are prepared to grow up and act like an adult and if one of them does learn to grow up then I will vote and that I promise you 100% because I enjoy reading what you have to say.
@ Cheryl
Dear Cheryl;
You had me right up until your last comment "We need a woman mayor folks!"
What we need is a mayor that can run this city well. Be it man women or anythig inbetween. Just someone who can run the city. Dragging gender into this is not the solution. Perhaps a women cold do a better job and perhaps there are other men who could do an equally good job...what we need is a good mayor regardless of gender!
Vote these clowns out of council and out of city government.
JonnyOttawa
ANDY HAYDON FOR MAYOR!
O'Brien just isn't the guy; Watson is just a McGuinty lackie; and Doucet...don't need to say anything about him (just glad he won't be a councillor anymore).