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The board of the association has members from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Halifax. Besides comparing notes, they can pool resources to hire their own lobbyists and spokespeople. One of Uber’s Canadian people is Susie Heath, who spoke for Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa until she left last winter; the hired PR man spreading the word about the taxi association is Jeff Silverstein, an ex-journalist who worked for then-Toronto mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug in their effort to keep Toronto’s mayoralty in the family.

(I know, I know. But whatever you think of the Fords, they had some smart people.)

Way is a living symbol of how baroque the taxi industry has become. Capital Taxi is Way’s family business and they’ve owned it for three generations. Way isalso vice-president of Coventry, which dispatches Blue Line, Capital, West-Way and the airport fleet — pretty well all the taxis in Ottawa — in addition to taxi services across southern Ontario and also does towing and garage work here and there. Coventry’s boss is Hanif Patni, the president of Blue Line.

Competition has been negligible, which is why Uber’s been like a racehorse overtaking a nag. Uber rides are easy to order and typically cheaper than taxis — partly because the company’s good at what it does, but partly because Uber drivers don’t pay the steep fees taxi drivers do for the right to drive.

The city-issued taxi plates or medallions that limit the number of approved taxis on the road represent a lot of wealth. Way estimates an Ottawa plate is worth between $150,000 and $225,000, though they don’t change hands much and Uber’s arrival makes their real value uncertain. Way’s family owns 87 plates, he says, meaning they have a lot invested in keeping a limited market. He insists protecting the value of plates isn’t the point, that unlike for absentee plate owners, profits from actually operating a legit taxi company are a bigger deal.