CANCELLED: Ottawa Board of Trade Mayoral Debate October 12, 2022

Dear Business and Community Leaders,

 

Thank you for your interest in the upcoming election. The Ottawa Board of Trade has invested in the Build Up Ottawa initiative because of the importance of this election to the future of our businesses and our community. It is our intention to promote a pro-growth agenda, to look for aligned candidate platforms and encourage the voting public to be active and informed. To that end we created a microsite with information and tools for everyone to use and we organized several events including a mayoral debate on October 12, 2022.

 

It was our intention to facilitate a meaningful discussion at the debate among the top polling mayoral candidates with a focus on business and economic priorities. It was planned well in advance and deliberately scheduled to ensure that candidate platforms were fully developed and that there was lots of time to review the content prior to making our decision on election day. We wish to express deep appreciation to all our partners and members for supporting it.

 

Unfortunately, we are forced to cancel this debate as Catherine McKenney, one of the top polling candidates, has withdrawn their participation as of this week. Obviously, we are disappointed as this was an important part of our initiative to inform all of you on the views of our potential new mayor as it relates to business, city building and our economy. However, we continue to look for alternative ways to engage and inform so please stay tuned.

 

Meanwhile, we hope you will continue to (1) research and reflect on the future of our city, (2) encourage others in your businesses and networks to get involved and (3) engage candidates in conversations about the Build Up Ottawa priorities. Join us for our upcoming virtual regional roundtables to meet some council candidates and discuss what is important to business. We will be posting a full list of participating candidates next week.

 

The municipal level of government is the one that most directly impacts our every day lives. And the outcome of this election will set the direction for our future, our business success and our community prosperity. We cannot afford the historically low voter turn outs that we endured in past years. We are facing a tremendous amount of uncertainty and we need to elect strong leadership. The time is now. The future is ours. Together, we will.

 

Yours in prosperity,

Sueling

Sueling Ching, President & CEO, Ottawa Board of Trade