Two incumbent Ottawa city councillors will almost certainly keep their seats after no one came forward to challenge them before the Friday afternoon deadline.
That means River ward Coun. Riley Brockington and Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown are the only nominated candidates in their wards and would automatically secure re-election after the city clerk certifies the final list of nominations.
City clerk Caitlin Salter MacDonald hopes to make it official by the end of day Friday. She said it would mark the first time a city council candidate wins by acclamation since 2003.
She told CBC voters in those races will be able to vote for other offices, including mayor, but their ballot will simply say “acclaimed” for the city council position.
“I’m humbled and deeply honoured by the opportunity to continue serving the residents of Ward 21,” Brown told CBC News.
“Every day since 2022, I’ve worked to earn and keep the trust of my communities by advancing the priorities of our villages, but there is still much more to do. I don’t take that trust for granted.”
Brockington told CBC in an interview he wasn’t expecting an acclamation and still plans to knock on doors and “get a new set of marching orders” from residents of the ward.
“I’m still very much treating this as an active campaign,” he said. “I’m not putting my feet up. The team and I will be going door to door and having those really important discussions because I want to reconnect and better understand what the top priorities for the next four years are.”
Osgoode Coun. Isabelle Skalski and College ward Coun. Laine Johnson were also running unopposed as the last day of nominations dawned, but candidates showed up at the city election office in the final hours to force a contest.
Pending any last-minute problems with the official list, Bruce Faulkner is the second candidate in Osgoode and Abakar Malloum is running against Johnson in College ward.
All told, there are now at least 85 candidates running for city council. The total is below the 107 that registered to run in the 2022 election, when about half of city council chose to sit out the race, leaving many more wide open seats.
This time, all but two incumbent councillors are seeking re-election in their seats.
Brockington, who was acclaimed as president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario this week, said there is a decline in the number of people running in municipal elections across the province.
“The toxicity, the online harassment, the bullying is a definite issue,” he said. “Really credible people that have the skill set that should be elected … are saying no thanks.”
Looks like 14 mayoral candidates
The roster of mayoral candidates also grew on Friday.
Perennial candidate Bernard Couchman, Geoff Nicholas, Josh Rachlis, OC Transpo employee Ali Shayvard, real estate agent Jacob Solomon and Amjad Syed showed up to register on the last day, pushing the total number of contenders in the race for Mark Sutcliffe’s job up to 14 if all filed properly.
Ali Shayvard is running for Ottawa mayor in the 2026 election. He said he waited until the final day to register because he has to take leave from his job. (Arthur White-Crummey/CBC)
Couchman, who has run in three previous elections and won 0.15 per cent of the vote in 2022, said his decision to register just hours before the deadline was “psychological.” He said other campaigns have stolen his ideas in the past.
“If you want to continue having bad roads, don’t vote for me,” he said. “If you want to continue to [see] flood damage in the sewer system, don’t vote for me.”
Shayvard describes himself as a democratic socialist candidate who was inspired by the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He had a very practical reason for waiting for the last minute.
“Because I work for the city, I cannot run earlier,” he said. “When I do start to run I have to take a leave of absence.”
Solomon ran in the last election as well, winning 0.14 per cent of the vote. This time around he was surprised to hear that the address on one of the 25 nomination signatures he needed was invalid.
“I’m upset I asked someone with such terrible handwriting,” he said.
So he had to go next door to Value Village to find a new one — and got it with just over an hour to spare from a man named Chris.
“I wanted to make sure that I was a hundred per cent sure,” he said of his decision to wait until the final day. “It’s a huge decision. It’s not one I take lightly.”
Jacob Solomon is running for Ottawa mayor in the 2026 election after sorting out a last-minute problem with his nomination papers. (Arthur White-Crummey/CBC)
Sutcliffe is running for re-election, and the other challengers who registered before Friday are Queen Divine Priya Amber Bakshi, three-term city councillor Jeff Leiper, homebuilder Alex Lawson, economist Neil Saravanamuttoo, bike repair worker Peter Westaway, returning candidate Zed Chebib and engineer Suraj Harish.
The candidates have already gotten off to an early start, with Leiper, Lawson and Saravanamuttoo all making major policy announcements on everything from transit to transparency to housing. Sutcliffe came out with his own transit plan this week.
Endorsements rolling in
Their campaigns have also begun rolling out endorsements, and Sutcliffe added some big names to his tally of supporters on Friday.
He has already announced endorsements from ex-cabinet ministers John Baird and Madeleine Meilleur. Then came former city councillor Mathieu Fleury.
Sutcliffe’s campaign is now providing a list that includes endorsements from 10 former mayors including Ottawa’s Jackie Holzman, Jim Durrell and Jim Watson, as well as several former leaders of the old cities of Nepean (Mary Pitt), Kanata (Merle Nicholds, Marianne Wilkinson, Des Adam), Gloucester (Claudette Cain) and the townships that came together to form the amalgamated City of Ottawa (Glenn Brooks, Janet Stavinga).
It also includes former federal Liberal cabinet minister David Pratt and former provincial Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Brian Coburn, current Progressive Conservative MPP George Darouze and several former city councillors.
The Jeff Leiper campaign previously secured endorsements from NDP MPP Catherine McKenney, who ran for mayor in 2022, and NDP MPP Chandra Pasma. Alex Lawson and Neil Saravanamuttoo have not yet announced any endorsements from elected officials.
Voters will elect 24 city councillors. While the 2022 election saw significant turnover, with about half of sitting councillors declining to seek re-election, the dynamic is different in 2026.
All but two incumbents are running again, leaving only Kitchissippi and Stittsville as wide open races that are guaranteed to send a new representative to the council chamber.
While election day is Oct. 26, voters will have chances to cast their ballots before then.
The special mail-in ballot application process runs between Sept. 1 and 15. Those ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Oct. 16 to be counted.
Advance voting is from Oct. 1 to 4, and then again on Oct. 16.