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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. <\/p>\n
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 \u2014 the deadline for registering to run.<\/p>\n
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.” <\/p>\n
MacLeod did not name those people. She also said she was seeing a “groundswell of grassroots interest” in her recent posts about municipal affairs. <\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 not politics. <\/p>\n
“I will not be running for mayor,” she said. <\/p>\n
She told CBC it was a “tough decision.”<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
She confirmed to CBC that she has no plans to endorse anyone in the mayoral election.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
MacLeod backed Sutcliffe for the 2022 election, but she had a different tone on Friday.<\/p>\n
“Do you believe Ottawa is a better place, safer place and stronger place than it was four years ago?” she asked.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>. She said she had faced four years of harassment, intimidation and death threats, and even received special police protection.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n