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Mayor Jim Watson owes former Capital councillor Clive Doucet a thank-you for registering to run against him this fall.

The vote is Oct. 22 and when nominations closed Friday afternoon, the eight-year incumbent faced 11 challengers. Only Doucet has held office before. Perhaps the next best-known is Vanier garage operator Bruce McConville, who’s run for council twice and lost.

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Doucet’s got a solid base among urban left-wingers, having served four terms for his downtown ward, but he also has a solid base of enemies who consider him the ultimate downtown weenie. When he ran for mayor in 2010, also against Watson, Doucet came third with less than 15 per cent of the vote. Watson outpolled him even in Doucet’s own neighbourhood. Although weirder things have happened, it would take an amazing reversal for Watson to lose in October.

Photo by Wayne Cuddington / Postmedia

“Walking away from your life is difficult. If there had been a great candidate to run against Mr. Watson, I would not be standing here. But it’s very clear that unless I run, there will be no debate. That’s the reason I’m here,” Doucet told Postmedia’s Jon Willing as he registered close to the last minute on Friday. He’d been thinking about running but only made up his mind the night before, he said. “I’m looking forward to a very good scrap with Mr. Watson.”