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After speculation about whether former Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod was planning a run for mayor of Ottawa, she announced Friday that she’s sitting out the race.
The announcement comes a week after MacLeod made social media posts faulting the way the city is run, calling for change and signalling she would have a decision to make in late August — the deadline for registering to run.
When asked about potential plans to run for mayor, MacLeod told CBC over Facebook on Monday that “serious people have encouraged me so I am taking that seriously.”
MacLeod did not name those people. She also said she was seeing a “groundswell of grassroots interest” in her recent posts about municipal affairs.
CBC confirmed MacLeod sounded out multiple mayoral candidates to discuss a potential challenge. Jeff Leiper, for example, said she reached out to him on Tuesday and that it was “no secret she’s contemplating a run for mayor.”
But MacLeod put an end to any speculation on Friday with a video posted to the Facebook account of Wandering Women: North of 50, a travel magazine where she is listed as editor in chief. On the video, she said she prefers to focus on her business pursuits — not politics.
“I will not be running for mayor,” she said.
She told CBC it was a “tough decision.”
“Support was there,” she said over Facebook. “Organizers came together. In the end I owe it to myself to follow this new path and see it through.”
She confirmed to CBC that she has no plans to endorse anyone in the mayoral election.
MacLeod’s decision not to run leaves six candidates in the race: Jeff Leiper, Alex Lawson, Neil Saravanamuttoo, Peter Westaway, Zed Chebib and the incumbent mayor, Mark Sutcliffe. There is still time for others to join until Aug. 21.
In her announcement on Friday, MacLeod predicted this will be a change election, with transit, traffic, public safety and the culture at city hall as major issues. Voting day is Oct. 26.
MacLeod backed Sutcliffe for the 2022 election, but she had a different tone on Friday.
“Do you believe Ottawa is a better place, safer place and stronger place than it was four years ago?” she asked.
First elected in 2006, MacLeod served six terms as a Progressive Conservative MPP until deciding not to seek reelection in 2025. She was minister of children, community and social services and minister of tourism, culture and sport.
She was left out of Doug Ford’s cabinet after being re-elected in 2022 and said she was taking time off to address her mental and physical health. She said she had faced four years of harassment, intimidation and death threats, and even received special police protection.
MacLeod had faced criticism over an allowance she received from her riding association and her handling of controversial changes to Ontario’s autism funding model.
She also faced criticism for a social media post about one of the people vying for her seat — which she later deleted and apologized for — that Muslim groups said was Islamophobic.