Article content continued

Both of these men would be wise to learn from the most obvious lesson of the 2010 mayoral election: The citizens of Ottawa aren’t interested in hitting the re-set button on transit again.

In 2010, Ottawa voters had their choice of 20 mayoral candidates — many of whom, including Maguire, offered their own transit alternatives. Clive Doucet wanted to move back to surface-level LRT, as opposed to a tunnel. Andrew Haydon’s last-minute campaign sought a tunnel for buses instead of trains. Jane Scharf wanted Ottawa to build an electric gondola system. Joseph Furtenbacher proposed light rail along the 417/174 corridor. Transit was the main issue of the election, and there was no shortage of alternative plans for Ottawa voters to choose from.

Yet in the end, voters were strongly supportive of the current plan. Eventual winner Jim Watson secured more than 48 per cent of the vote based on his support of the current plan and his insistence that it not go over budget. Failed incumbent Larry O’Brien also supported the plan we have today, and he brought in another 24 per cent of the popular vote. All told, nearly three-quarters of voters selected candidates who supported the current plan. Although other factors came into play, as well, the result was a resounding pledge of support for the city to move forward on the current plan, with the caveat that costs be controlled and debt-financing be responsible and manageable.

Looking back to the 2006 election, it’s easy to see why the people of Ottawa were not interested in starting all over on transit plans. Larry O’Brien campaigned on re-assessing the plan that Bob Chiarelli had put together to electrify the O-Train and extend the tracks, at street level, north into downtown and south to the airport and through Barrhaven. When O’Brien won, the plan was cancelled amidst much controversy — notably about rising costs, which direction it should go, whether the federal government was fully committed to its funding pledge, and whether Ottawa would be better served with a downtown tunnel.