Meet the other 10 candidates running for election as Ottawa's mayor

Ottawa voters have heard plenty from the four frontrunners in the mayoral campaign, with incumbent mayor Mark Sutcliffe, longtime councillor Jeff Leiper, economist Neil Saravanamuttoo and homebuilder Alex Lawson invited to spar in televised debates and competing for media coverage.

But there are 10 other candidates who also threw their hats into the ring for the mayor’s chair prior to the Aug. 21 nomination deadline who have differing visions on the city’s priorities.

Some are running because they truly believe they can do a better job of governing, others are admittedly “fringe” candidates hoping to use the campaign as a springboard to amplify issues close to their hearts.

“I admit I am a fringe candidate and mainly running to promote my obsession with how terrible our Ottawa Greenbelt is,” said Peter Westaway, who ran as an independent candidate in the 2025 Ontario election and, though he calls Nepean home, also ran for the vacant Osgoode council seat in last year’s by-election.

He finished last among the 11 candidates in that race, collecting only five votes.

Westaway has called the Greenbelt an “overwhelming geographical flaw” and a “travesty” in its current form that has created the urban sprawl it was meant to contain.

“We should change it while creating a proper Greenbelt modeled after the successful, huge Ontario Greenbelt,” he said.

Zed Chebib, a police-reform advocate and perennial candidate, most recently ran as an independent in Ottawa-Centre during the 2025 federal election and also ran for mayor in 2022. He finished last among the 14 candidates for mayor in that municipal election with 265 votes (0.08 per cent) of the 316,254 ballots cast.

Jacob Solomon finished 13th in 2022 with 432 votes, and Bernard Couchman finished 12th with 471 votes. Both are running again after registering on the final day of the nomination period in August.

Chebib and Solomon did not respond to an Ottawa Citizen questionnaire, nor did candidate Amjed Syed. Couchman responded by saying he was “not interested.”

Another candidate, Geoffrey Nicholas Griplas, who registered his candidacy under the name Geoff Nicholas, was charged by Kingston police in September for criminal harassment and allegedly uttering death threats against Sutcliffe and Premier Doug Ford.

Here are the platforms and policies of the other 2026 mayoral candidates as the clock ticks down to election day on Oct. 26.

Suraj Harish

Suraj Harish, 77, worked for the City of Ottawa as a senior project manager for more than 35 years.

“I have been living in Ottawa since 1972 and watched Ottawa’s infrastructure decline over the years. I decided to run for mayor to bring attention to the issues that are important to me and what I believe would impact Ottawa positively, if fixed,” he wrote.

He listed his top priorities as fixing the city’s road network, improving public transportation and better maintenance of the sewer system.

“The city needs to ensure that all main modes of public transportation are reliable. Repairing the LRT needs to be prioritized and buses need to be brought back to neighbourhoods that need service or require additional service,” Harish wrote.

He said a better sewer system could have prevented much of the flooding during the July 1 storm.

“Floods will occur when the sewer system is blocked with rocks, garbage and debris from the roads and the city needs to ensure that the sewer systems are cleared out regularly. Especially in areas considered high-risk for floods during major storms.”

Queen Divine Priya Amber Bakshi

Queen Bakshi’s campaign team says she has called Ottawa home for more than 34 years and brings more than 25 years of professional experience across the public and private sectors.

A mother of two, she worked in technology before joining the federal public service with Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The only female candidate among the 14 running for mayor, her team said one of her reasons for running “is to inspire more women to consider becoming mayor and participating in public leadership. She wants women to see that they do not have to wait for someone else to give them permission to try.”

She’s not a “career politician,” her team said, but brings professional experience, an education in economics and technology and the perspective of a mother of two who cares about her community.

“Queen believes that people with good ideas should feel encouraged to participate in shaping their communities, regardless of whether they have a traditional political background. Through this campaign, she hopes to demonstrate that civic engagement can begin with a simple step: putting yourself forward, listening to others and being willing to learn.”

Her top priorities include affordability, housing, responsible city management, environmental protection and stronger community engagement.

Ali Shayvard

Ali Shayvard, 40, spent 12 years with OC Transpo as a bus operator, train operator and instructor. He came to Canada in 1999 and says his story is “rooted in immigration, working-class life, family and public service.”

Shayvard said the improvements residents were promised in 2022 had not materialized, citing unreliable transit, poor road conditions, failing infrastructure, unaffordable housing and families paying more without seeing better services.

“I’m also concerned about the influence developers have over municipal priorities,” he wrote. “I’m running because I believe Ottawa needs a city hall that works for residents, not political insiders or special interests.”

He described himself as a democratic socialist running a grassroots, self-funded campaign, “because I believe public money should go toward reliable services, affordable housing, safe communities, and infrastructure that lasts, not political favours.”

His top priority is fixing transit and restoring reliable service through “realistic schedules, preventive maintenance, adequate staffing, better connections and express routes.” He said he would introduce a $90 adult monthly pass for four years, improve Para Transpo and fix LRT Stage 2 before pursuing Stage 3.

He also listed fixing roads and infrastructure, expanding affordable housing, improving community safety and fiscal responsibility and transparency as priorities.

Josh Rachlis

Josh Rachlis, 53, is an advertising copywriter and says he has created ads for some the world’s largest companies and helped grow small brands into billion-dollar brands.

He has been a Green Party candidate in federal and provincial elections, has served as a member of the Green Party of Ontario shadow cabinet, hosted TV and radio political call-in shows and has been a longtime community volunteer.

“As an actor, comedian, artist and songwriter, I know the challenges of being a creative worker and want to support our arts community … I see that the Ottawa entertainment industry is growing and I want to help it grow even more,” he wrote.

“Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve posted videos on social media showing shops, restaurants and festivals I visit. I invite people to join me so we can walk around as a group. And I interview people I meet, from art vendors to restaurant servers. People now come up to me to tell me they love my content because it shows them what to do in Ottawa and brings people together. So I feel connected to Ottawa and want to help. I also want to give residents a voice, and by running I can help residents be heard even more,” he wrote.

The primary concerns he’s heard from residents include unreliable transit, housing affordability and community safety.

“This frustrates me because I want everyone in Ottawa to be able to live a good life. We’re a well-off city with smart people. We should be able to have reliable transit, affordable housing and safe streets,” Rachlis wrote.

He is proposing free transit on a month-long trial basis to attract more riders and reduce traffic congestion.

He said he would convert a downtown parking lot into “Compassion Park” with resources for the homeless and would expand the ANCHOR program for non-police responses to non-violent crises, “freeing police to focus on crime and keeping our streets safe.”

Peter Westaway

Peter Westaway, 64, is a former Nepean taxi driver and was elected to serve on the Ottawa Taxi Advisory Committee shortly after amalgamation in 2001.

“That is my only direct experience, but driving taxi for 20 years in Nepean gave me a great, long lesson on loving our city and the people in it,” he wrote.

His priorities are “mainly to convince the National Capital Commission to listen finally to my concerns about the Greenbelt,” he wrote.

“They admit on the first page of their Master Plan Reviews that it is a complete failure. It was created to contain urban sprawl and has instead made the sprawl much worse. Yet they refuse to correct this short-sighted plan.”

Westaway is also advocating for fiscal restraint at city hall and better waste management, including a waste-to-energy incinerator.

“And we don’t need more cops, we deserve better ones,” he wrote.