Why Catherine McKenney isn't endorsing Neil Saravanamuttoo

When Catherine McKenney ran for mayor in 2022, they tapped Neil Saravanamuttoo to be an economic adviser during the campaign. After losing the election, McKenney and Saravanamuttoo together co-founded the national non-profit CityShapes, with a goal to lead advocacy and community engagement work to build better cities in Canada.

But when Saravanamuttoo announced his candidacy for the 2026 Ottawa mayoral election, he was missing one surprising endorsement for the city’s top job.

McKenney instead announced their endorsement for longtime city councillor Jeff Leiper.

“There were a lot of people on my campaign. Some of them are very good friends, but I wouldn’t endorse them for mayor,” McKenney told the Ottawa Citizen when asked about not endorsing Saravanamuttoo despite their close work together over the years. “I think it’s a difficult job … I just felt that you need that experience, and I feel that Jeff has it.

“I worked with Jeff very closely on council for eight years. I know what he’s capable of,” McKenney added. “You cannot be an effective mayor if you’ve never been on council.”

Saravanamuttoo said he wasn’t offended by McKenney’s endorsement, nor was he surprised. “Catherine is a member of the NDP and party politics comes first in a lot of these decisions. The NDP wanted a mayor in the City of Ottawa. I don’t take it personally; it’s just party politics.”

Saravanamuttoo added that he wasn’t sure he would have even asked for McKenney’s endorsement this election. “I’ve got different values and priorities that reflect the whole city that are necessary for success in winning this election,” he said.

On the other hand, Leiper was glad to have the support of McKenney, who is now an MPP for Ottawa Centre. “They and I share many of the same values and approaches. I’m grateful that they’ve chosen to express that publicly,” Leiper said.

McKenney had previously told media that the path to defeating incumbent Mayor Mark Sutcliffe can only happen if the opposition units behind one campaign with a path to victory.

Saravanamuttoo said in an interview, “I agree with Catherine on that point. Unfortunately for Jeff Leiper and Catherine, Jeff is not that person. Jeff has some support in the core among downtown progressives, but his support in the rest of the city is just not sufficient. We need a candidate who can attract voters from all of the different regions of Ottawa, and that’s me.”

Both Leiper and Saravanamuttoo have claimed to be in second place behind Sutcliffe, citing different polls.