Alex Lawson should have run for city council instead | Opinion

Too bad construction business owner Alex Lawson didn’t run for city council rather than pursue a longshot bid to become mayor. Council would benefit from having an articulate fiscal conservative with a grasp of policy.

Unfortunately, Lawson is attempting a nearly impossible political feat. He began the campaign with no name recognition or prior electoral experience. Under those circumstances, just being taken seriously is a challenge, one that Lawson has met. Outpolling incumbent mayor Mark Sutcliffe will be a lot tougher.

Lawson’s campaign for the top job has shown him to be an energetic campaigner who relishes challenging the status quo at City Hall. Of the three men vying to deny Sutcliffe a second term as mayor, Lawson has the best critique of Sutcliffe’s record and the most detailed plan for what to do instead.

Lawson is certainly blunt in his analysis of the city’s performance under Sutcliffe, who promised a safer, more affordable city when he ran in 2022. Lawson notes that crime is up 18.9 per cent since then, rent on a two-bedroom apartment up 17.9 per cent, taxes up 12 per cent, and city fees and charges up 32.6 per cent.

Lawson is convinced that the city is loosely managed and careless with public money. He is proposing a back-to-basics plan that would end leaky city spending and allow for a tax freeze in the first year of a Lawson mayoralty, followed by a one-per-cent increase, then increases of two per cent in the last two years of the term.

By contrast, Sutcliffe has promised increases of no more than 2.5 per cent for the first two years of a new term but says it’s unrealistic to commit to a number after that.

Lawson has a knack for identifying things that irritate the public and proposing simple solutions. For example, he’d like to do away with paid street parking, suggesting two-hour limits would do. He pointed out that the city parking program costs nearly as much to operate as it brings in.

His three main opponents were horrified by the proposal. Why the city simply must manage parking so it can control demand. Reaction to recent parking rule changes would suggest the public is less enthusiastic.

Lawson would also get rid of the city’s vacant unit tax, a measure that punishes people for keeping a home empty, even if it’s on the market. The tax rests on the idea that the city should decide how your house should be used, not you.

He would also end the charade of trying to prolong the life of the city-owned Trail Road landfill, bringing back the six-item garbage limit and getting on with a waste-to-energy plant at the site the city has purchased near Carlsbad Springs.

Lawson has shown himself to be something of a policy wonk, although he has a gift for explaining his ideas in simple terms. If anything, he has too much policy with 19 different plans so far.

Lawson’s lack of experience isn’t necessarily disqualifying. Sutcliffe had no political experience when he ran four years ago, though he did have name recognition from his years in the media and he didn’t have to run against an incumbent. He also had only one serious opponent, not three. Lawson doesn’t have those advantages.

Had he run in his home ward of West Carleton-March, Lawson would have found himself up against Clarke Kelly, who won the last election with just 27 per cent of the vote. A victory there would have given Lawson a good shot at the mayoralty in four years.

Lawson didn’t take the more winnable path, but one does have to admire his self-confidence.

Randall Denley is an Ottawa journalist and author. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com