Mayor Mark Sutcliffe could face some formidable competition in the mayoral race as a number of high-profile candidates are poised to kick off their campaigns with the nomination period opening on Friday.
Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper has already announced his intention to run for the mayor’s chair.
Meanwhile, there is growing speculation that another high-profile candidate will join the race with Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney preparing to make an announcement on social media Friday. The long-serving councillor has long been an advocate for east-end priorities and has recently increased his public profile with his outspoken views on issues from the LRT extension to the provincial ban on speed cameras.
Tierney, who chairs the public works and infrastructure committee and serves as first vice-president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, has also recently bolstered his communications staff by hiring policy and media advisor Dani-Elle Dubé.
Tierney offered no comment when asked about a possible mayoral run on Thursday, and Dubé said the councillor was busy “putting everything together” before Friday’s announcement. Tierney is also one of the few incumbent councillors who has not indicated whether he plans to seek re-election for his council seat.
The opening of the nomination period on May 1 marks the first formal step in the campaign season for municipalities across Ontario as candidates can file nomination papers and officially declare they are planning to run for mayor or council.
With the possibility of multiple challengers for the mayor’s chair in Ottawa, some vacant council seats and hot-button issues with housing, transit and major municipal projects, 2026 already has the makings of an exciting and consequential election.
Here are some of the emerging storylines in the early days of the 2026 municipal election campaign:
Who is running for mayor?
Four candidates have already announced their intention to run for mayor in 2026, with Sutcliffe confirming he will seek a second term on the same day Leiper announced his run for the mayor’s chair in June .
Alex Lawson, a homebuilder who grew up in Heron Gate and previously served on the board of the Kanata-Carleton Conservative Association, announced his candidacy for mayor in January and has released several campaign planks on transit, crime, traffic, housing and property taxes.
An announcement from Tierney is expected Friday and will clarify whether he will seek a fifth council term or whether he will challenge Sutcliffe for the top job.
Community organizer and economist Neil Saravanamuttoo will also be announcing his candidacy for the mayor’s chair. Saravanamuttoo is the executive director of CitySHAPES, a not-for-profit group that aims to build better cities with a focus on affordable housing, sustainable transportation and municipal governance and transparency.
Saravanamuttoo, who led a community campaign opposing the Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment, said he intends to file his nomination papers Friday afternoon, with an official campaign launch planned on Monday.
Leiper, known as a progressive voice at the council table, has served as Kitchissippi’s councillor since 2014, where he was re-elected in 2018 and again in 2022 with 72 per cent of the vote. He chairs the city’s planning and housing committee and has served on numerous standing and sub-committees during his tenure.
He cited the unreliable transit system, the housing affordability crisis and concerns about declining city services as early priorities when he announced his candidacy.
“Services are getting worse, not better,” Leiper told reporters at the time. Leiper was one of ten councillors who opposed the Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment when it passed by a 15-10 council vote in November.
Sutcliffe said he did not expect to run unopposed in 2026. He won the 2022 election in a field of 14 mayoral candidates, winning 51 per cent of the vote, with Catherine McKenney the closest challenger with 38 per cent.
McKenney has since been elected to the Ontario legislature representing Ottawa Centre for the NDP.
Sutcliffe has cited a number of priorities for the current council term, with a focus on affordability, housing, public transit, the flow of traffic and improving safety downtown and in the ByWard Market.
“There’s still a lot of work to do this term, and I’m not really focused on the election,” he said during a year-end interview in December.
A recent Liaison Strategies poll, commissioned by the Ottawa Compass and iPolitics, surveyed 1,000 residents in mid-April and found nearly half (48 per cent) of voters are undecided.
Sutcliffe was the frontrunner among the three declared candidates with 46 per cent support, while Leiper had 37 per cent and 13 per cent favoured Lawson. Another four per cent favoured other candidates. (Saravanamootoo was not named in the survey)
What are the big campaign issues?
The cost of living, housing affordability and reliable public transit will be among the key issues for Ottawa voters this fall.
An Abacus Data survey of 1,000 residents, released by the Ottawa Real Estate Board in January, found that 37 per cent of respondents cited the cost of living as the city’s most important issue, followed by housing affordability (19 per cent) and the reliability of public transit (11 per cent.)
More than three quarters (77 per cent) of respondents said housing is unaffordable in Ottawa and 82 per cent said housing-related issues will be important in determining which candidate they vote for in October, according to OREB.
Confidence in OC Transpo’s beleaguered rail service and overall transit reliability will also be major issues in the campaign, with 37 per cent identifying transit as a priority for candidates.
Major city projects like the Lansdowne 2.0 revitalization project also drew mixed reviews from survey respondents, with 37 per cent opposing the plan and only 27 per cent in favour.
A significant share of respondents (43 per cent) viewed the project as an unnecessary financial burden for taxpayers, according to the Abacus survey.
Lansdowne 2.0 was touted as a major accomplishment for Sutcliffe’s first term as mayor, but the contentious plan had its share of detractors around the council table and in the community .
The more recent Liaison Strategies poll in April showed a negative approval rating for the mayor on a number of issues, with 71 per cent disapproving Sutcliffe’s handling of transit, 58 per cent disapproving of his approach to homelessness and 54 per cent disapproving of housing affordability.
Sutcliffe’s best performance in the Liaison Strategies poll came on issues of crime, with 44 per cent approving and 48 per cent disapproving, according to iPolitics.
The mayor notably held several campaign-style announcements in the fall of 2025 where he unveiled his ambitious housing action plan, his public safety action plan and a pledge to end youth homelessness by 2030.
Who is (and isn’t) running for council?
Most of the city’s 24 incumbent councillors have already said they intend to run again in 2026.
Leiper’s run for mayor means there will be a vacancy in Kitchissippi, where former Ottawa Citizen and CBC journalist Joanne Chianello and former Westboro BIA director Michelle Groulx have announced their candidacy for the council seat.
Leiper reserved comment when asked about ward-specific priorities for his successor.
“We’ve got some great candidates in the ward and after 12 years in Kitchissippi with the same councillor, they are likely to want to have those conversations with voters themselves with the opportunity to present fresh ideas and to define their own campaigns,” Leiper said.
Depending on what happens with Tierney’s announcement Friday, his Beacon Hill-Cyrville seat could be open for the first time since 2010. Tierney won re-election handily with more than 80 per cent of the ward’s vote in 2014, 2018 and 2022.
Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower has announced he will not run in 2026 after pledging to serve only two terms when he was elected in 2018.
Gower, who chairs the transit committee and serves as vice-chair of the planning and housing committee, recently posted his campaign advice for aspiring council candidates and said he has heard from nine people who have expressed interest in running for council.
Gower said the primary issues in Stittsville stem from housing growth.
“We’re one of the fastest-growing wards in the city, and residents are really concerned about what governments are doing to keep up with that growth: transportation infrastructure (roads and transit), schools, hospitals and health care, parks and recreation facilities, even grocery stores and retail closer to new neighbourhoods,” Gower said.
“Not all of that is in the city’s control but candidates will definitely be hearing about these issues at the door during the campaign.”
What are the important dates?
May 1 is the official kickoff to campaign season as the first day that candidates can file nomination papers. Once the papers are filed, the candidate may begin accepting contributions and spending money on their campaign
The nomination period is open until Aug. 21, which is also the last day that candidates can withdraw their candidacy.
Candidates will be able to place lawn signs on private and public property beginning on Sept. 11. They must be removed by midnight Oct. 29.
Special advance voting days will be held from Oct. 1 to 4 citywide and advance voting will be held in each ward Oct. 16.
Voting day is Oct. 26.
