{"id":73819,"date":"2021-12-16T08:14:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T13:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=73819"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:59:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:59:29","slug":"catherine-mckenney-running-for-mayor-with-platform-emphasizing-affordability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/catherine-mckenney-running-for-mayor-with-platform-emphasizing-affordability\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine McKenney running for mayor with platform emphasizing affordability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coun. Catherine McKenney announced their candidacy for the 2022 mayoral election on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Somerset Ward councillor made the announcement after four-term incumbent Jim Watson said he wasn\u2019t running for reelection next year.<\/p>\n

Prior to holding a position on city council, McKenney worked in the offices of city councillors Diane Holmes, their predecess<\/p>\n

or, and Alex Munter, as well as federal members of Parliament Ed Broadbent and Paul Dewar.<\/p>\n

McKenney announced their candidacy via Twitter.<\/p>\n

\"A

Catherine McKenney announced their candidacy for the 2022 mayoral race via Twitter on Friday. Photo by Catherine McKenney.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI am excited today to be running for mayor in 2022,\u201d McKenney wrote. \u201cI've heard from many of you across the city about the kind of Ottawa we want to build and the challenges we face.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenney has been instrumental in directing city council on behalf of Somerset Ward residents. They have been a champion of increasing the affordability of transit<\/a> in Ottawa, as well as an advocate for a judicial inquiry<\/a> into the faulty O-Train system.<\/p>\n

Elected as councillor for Somerset Ward in 2014, McKenney has served on city council for nearly eight years. They were reelected in 2018 with an overwhelming 76 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n

McKenney says they have been engaged in discussions with residents and has fielded some \u201ctough questions\u201d since announcing their candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you afford some of the things you talk about?\u201d says McKenney. \u201cHow do we make housing really affordable for everyone? How do we ensure that we do move towards much more affordable transit, but also transit that functions well, that shows up when you need it, where you need it. And I say, \u2018You know what? This is about our priorities.\u2019 And I want to hear from you. We need to have these conversations about what the priorities are for the citizens of Ottawa.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenney, who has been a vocal ally of the LGBTQ2+ community, is openly gay and non-binary themselves. They were the first openly gay person to serve on Ottawa\u2019s city council. If elected in 2022, McKenney would be Ottawa\u2019s second openly gay mayor, after Jim Watson, and its first non-binary mayor.<\/p>\n

Councillor Diane Deans and former Ottawa mayor and councillor Bob Chiarelli also announced their candidacy on Friday.<\/p>\n

Listen to the CHUO news update below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coun. Catherine McKenney announced their candidacy for the 2022 mayoral election on Friday. The Somerset Ward councillor made the announcement after four-term incumbent Jim Watson said he wasn\u2019t running for reelection next year. Prior to holding a position on city council, McKenney worked in the offices of city councillors Diane Holmes, their predecess or, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":73828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,225,2602],"tags":[11405,7947,11406,4611,571,11408,3857,1177,11407,868],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73819"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=73819"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=73819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}