Mark Sutcliffe registers as Ottawa mayoral candidate

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]It's official. Mark Sutcliffe is running to hold on to his job as the mayor of Ottawa in this fall's election. We've got a good thing going right now around the council table with some very strong colleagues. We're working together in the best interest of the community, and I want to keep going with that. Already declared are councilor Jeff Leiper, home builder Alex Lawson, and economist Neil Saravanamuttoo. They all registered on day one so they could start raising funds and campaigning. That was three and a half weeks ago. Lately, Sutcliffe has been facing questions about the line between his official duties as head of the city and self-promotion. Just today, an advocacy group filed a formal complaint with the integrity commissioner about ads the mayor has been running in community newspapers. To use, you know, taxpayer dollars to publish it in in a paper in a in a in a community paper while you're still mayor and you have those resources and you don't want to spend money on campaign is is unfair to us. My MP, my MPP, my city councilor, and and the mayor, uh the previous mayor, the one before that, the one before that, they all ran ads in community newspapers. So, I don't know what the story is here. We spoke to a lawyer who specializes in these questions, Jack Siegel. He says it's a gray area, and politicians trumpet their accomplishments all the time. Arthur White-Crummey, CBC News, Ottawa.