Voters Reject Rabidly Anti-Convoy Candidate

Slightly sympathetic to the truckers, new mayor of Ottawa got more than half the votes.

The dominant narrative says Ottawa residents loathed the Freedom Convoy. But readers of this blog know that wasn’t necessarily the case. Many of them supported the truckers - generously and actively. They fed these out-of-town visitors, washed their laundry, invited them into their homes for showers, and welcomed them at their churches.

Two days ago, a municipal election was held in Ontario. People voted for mayors, city councillors, and school board trustees. The outcome in Ottawa, where 14 candidates ran for mayor, is worth a mention.

The person considered the front runner was Catherine McKenney, who’d previously served two terms as city councillor. Before the convoy arrived in the nation’s capital, she issued a libelous public statement that read, in part:

the event we're looking at this weekend is not what it appears. Several members of this group are connected to militant racist, sexist, and homophobic groups. Their statements and placards promote xenophobia. They are not here to only raise voices against vaccination mandates, but to also fuel hatred against the very fabric of our society. [bold added]

As recently as Monday, McKenney’s supporters were pointing to a newspaper column - in which her main rival expressed mild empathy for the truckers - as a strike against him:

McKenney lost the election. An impressive 51% of voters chose Mark Sutcliffe, a political rookie who has never held public office before. In other words, the McKenney camp played the convoy card. And lost. When given a chance to express themselves, Ottawa voters rejected her rabid, anti-convoy stance.

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It’s also worth noticing that longtime Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson chose to retire rather than contest this election.

The same is true of Diane Deans, who’d been a city councillor for 28 years. She abandoned her planned run for mayor and further declined to stand for council. (Deans’ longtime executive assistant, Jessica Bradley, was elected in her stead.) Crime - actual violence, rather than truck horns - has been a longstanding concern in the part of Ottawa Deans represents.

The convoy appears, therefore, to be at least partially responsible for interrupting the careers of three prominent muncipal politicians.