By Charlie Senack
Former Somerset Councillor Catherine McKenney is looking to dip their toes back into politics but this time it won’t be at City Hall.
The two-term municipal representative, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2022, has officially been declared as the provincial NDP candidate in Ottawa Centre. The seat is currently held by Joel Harden, who is running for the riding’s federal NDP nomination.
McKenney said they want to be at Queen’s Park to better the lives of residents who are currently being forgotten about by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“Everything I care about and think about everyday I can address as an MPP for this community. I think about the housing crisis, the homeless emergency that we are faced with, the lack of transit and funding, or better schools we need,” McKenney said during an hour-long chat at Parkdale’s Driphouse Coffee Shop.
On the topic of transit, McKenney said almost no operating funds have been given to the city for almost two decades.
OC Transpo is currently being faced with a $120 million hole in its budget. To fill that gap, fares are going up, youth passes are being eliminated, and seniors were faced with a 120 per cent increase for their monthly pass. But after pushback, it’s set to climb only 60 per cent to $78.50, but could become even less when council votes on the budget Dec. 11.
“The province used to pay up to 50 per cent of operating costs but now they are downloading it onto the city,” said McKenney. “What we are seeing now is what we call a ‘death spiral’ for transit. It began in 2010 with Mayor Jim Watson when he optimized transit routes. That meant cuts and continued to increase transit fares. That’s led to an ongoing decrease in ridership. If you look at transit and what it does for the economy, people’s lives and affordability, every level of government has to step up.”
McKenney is also frustrated over the Ford government’s new restrictions for bike lanes. Municipalities will now need to seek approval if they are looking to build the new cycling infrastructure, and some could be torn up.
The Premier said the change is needed to help reduce congestion on roads, but Ottawa councillors say bike lanes in fact do that and they have the stats to prove it. There was rumour that the O’Connor bike lane was being looked at for possible removal, but Ford has now hinted that won’t be the case.
“What alarms me most about that is the overreach by the Premier, by one person, into municipal affairs,” said McKenney. “Today it’s bike lanes. What will it be tomorrow?“
The riding of Ottawa Centre tends to switch between the Liberals and NDP but McKenney thinks they can keep it orange. The seat was held for a long time by Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi until his defeat by Harden in 2018. During that election, the Liberals lost power and fell to seven seats, resulting in the loss of official party status. It was the worst political defeat in Ontario history.
Now McKenney thinks it’s Ford’s time to go, and the NDP have their best chance with new leader Marit Stiles at the helm.
“We see what’s happening elsewhere. Incumbent governments in many cases are losing because people see they aren’t any better off than they were when this government came into power,” said McKenney. “In the case of the Ford government, six years later we have a worsening housing crisis, people cannot afford to purchase homes, we’ve got a worst transit funding model, we’ve got infrastructure crumbling in our cities, and we don’t have a government that’s going to support municipalities and make them better.”
The 44th Ontario provincial election can be held no later than June 4, 2026. Ford hasn’t ruled out calling an early election, and many pollsters predict it will occur in the spring before the federal election.