Do as I say, not as I do.

That apparently is the motto for at least a couple of councillors who ignored the strong messaging to leave their cars at home for the weekend’s Lansdowne Park games.

With freebie football tickets for club seating ­— and a parking pass courtesy of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group — both Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais and Rideau-Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt drove to watch the first home game of the RedBlacks.

Blais makes no apologies.

“The tickets came with the parking pass so I used it,” Blais said.

Asked if he didn’t feel some measure of responsibility to set a good example, he said no.

Nice.

Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli, the chair of the city’s transportation committee, said he felt it important to follow the city’s message about taking public transit.

“We have to walk the walk, or take the bus as the case may be,” Egli said.

Egli, like several of his colleagues, said it was a great experience — sharing with transit goers the anticipation of the first game — and then sharing stories following the game.

Some, like Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder and Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney, tweeted about the fun experience of taking transit.

Mayor Jim Watson also felt it was important to follow the city’s request to take transit and not his car.

He encouraged his councillors to do the same.

“I think you need to practise what you preach. And I also wanted to see how it worked,” Watson said, adding he used the Carleton University park-and-ride.

“It worked like a charm. (The shuttle) took me 11 minutes. It seemed very well organized. I thought OSEG did a great job. A lot of people obviously heard the message,” he said.

In fact, Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Steve Desroches made a point of telling OSEG he didn’t want the parking pass when he attended one Sunday’s soccer game.

(He was out of town for the RedBlacks’ opening.)

Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury took his bike on the weekend.

“It was a pretty fun experience. They take your bike, and give you a ticket,” he said, adding he wouldn’t have considered using his car.

“We’re messaging for people not to use your car, it would be odd to do so,” he said.

Exactly.

Worried about public perception, Orleans Coun. Bob Monette didn’t accept the freebie tickets.

He used his RedBlack season tickets which he purchased and took a shuttle from city hall. For the Fury game, he bought his own club seat tickets and did drive and used the parking pass which game with those seats.

Having paid for the parking pass, doesn’t seem Monette should be penalized for using it.

Several city councillors had previous engagements and didn’t make it to the games.

One of those was West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry, but he said under the circumstances he would never consider taking his car.

Moffatt was equally unapologetic about accepting and using the parking pass for both games, saying he was busy and running late both days.

And yes, he admits, he could have taken an arranged bus shuttle from one of the local businesses in North Gower.

As for his colleagues’ statements they would never have considered driving, he doesn’t apologize.

“ I’m not opposed to it, that’s fair,” he said.

What does he think of his colleagues who made the effort to take transit?

“I’ll look at doing something like that, I won’t have a pass. Good on them. They don’t live in North Gower.”

Asked if it ever considered not sending city councillors parking passes, OSEG didn’t return the Sun’s request for an answer.

The Sun didn’t reach all of city council.