- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,587
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 228
The city’s youngest councillor rode his youthful exuberance to re-election Monday, defeating two serious challengers who thought Rideau-Vanier needed more experience and heft in the council chair.
But the fresh-faced kid, despite a lingering conflict-of-interest handicap, won with relative ease, taking about 50 per cent of the vote in early returns.
The first result at 8:15 put Mathieu Fleury in the lead by 56 votes. A cheer went up in the Eastview branch of the Canadian Legion, quarts of beer were hoisted in the air, and Fleury never looked back.
By 8:40, to the beat of The Heavy’s rock song, How You Like Me Now?, Fleury strode into his party on the crest of victory, hugging supporters and campaign workers to hoots and hollers.
“I’m not standing here alone,” he began his victory speech, calling up his campaign team, including his mother.
“It’s unbelievable, together, what we’ve been able to achieve. Don’t you think?”
A tight race was expected, given that Fleury took the seat with a narrow 88-vote margin four years ago over incumbent Georges Bédard.
When first elected in 2010, not only was he young (25), and relatively inexperienced (previously a lifeguard), but he took over a ward with a number of long-standing, thorny problems.
Rideau-Vanier, with a population of about 48,000, is possibly the city’s most diverse ward, taking in Lowertown, Sandy Hill, the ByWard Market and a good portion of Vanier.
Easily the youngest of 23 councillors, Fleury’s early wobbles in the job — and that youthful exuberance — might account for the entry of two strong, established opponents.
Marc Aubin, 34, a federal public servant and former president of the Lowertown Community Association, and Catherine Fortin LeFaivre, 32, a communications director at a national not-for-profit organization, were the most serious of the five contenders.
Both have deep roots in the community, and during the campaign questioned how well Fleury had done in representing the ward. In particular, they noted how soon after his election Fleury had to declare a conflict of interest on some zoning issues because his father works for an active developer, Claridge.
They also questioned his commitment to protecting heritage buildings and his supposed lack of aggressiveness toward the ward’s “slum landlords.”
Rideau-Vanier has no shortage of intractable problems. The heavy-truck traffic on King Edward Avenue, for instance, has long been a sore point in the ward and talk of a possible tunnel, now in the study stages, means a final solution is years away, with uncertain funding.
On the social side, meanwhile, Rideau-Vanier is home to a nucleus of homeless shelters, which leads to ongoing concern about vagrancy, panhandling, addiction issues, petty crime and affordable or supported housing.
With the presence of the University of Ottawa, there are periodic spikes in complaints about the sprawl of the campus, the growth in student housing and the attendant noise and nuisance issues.
Development, too, is always under a microscope because of high-profile locations like the Rideau Centre (expansions, LRT), the ByWard Market (flipping from food stalls to a bar-nightclub magnet) and Sandy Hill, which has areas both tony and low-income.
Rideau Street, meanwhile, was undergoing a facelift and there was strife about whether development should be low-rise mainstreet style or whether 20-plus towers should proliferate. At the same time, Vanier’s main street was undergoing a revitalization.
Trailing the three higher profile candidates were David-George Oldham, Marc Vinette and George Atanga.
During the campaign, Fleury touted his first-term efforts in the redevelopment of Jules Morin Park and Rideau Street, expansion of cycling routes in the ward, the pedestrian bridge at Donald-Somerset Street and a tightening of regulations pertaining to noise violations, property standards and the maintenance of vacant and heritage property.
Related
Mathieu Fleury, re-elected in Rideau-Vanier, gets some victory hugs on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014.
Mathieu Fleury celebrates after being re-elected on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014.
Supporters of Mathieu Fleury of Rideau-Vanier, Ward 12, wait at the Royal Canadian Legion in Vanier.
Supporters of Mathieu Fleury of Rideau-Vanier, Ward 12, wait at the Royal Canadian Legion in Vanier.
查看原文...
But the fresh-faced kid, despite a lingering conflict-of-interest handicap, won with relative ease, taking about 50 per cent of the vote in early returns.
The first result at 8:15 put Mathieu Fleury in the lead by 56 votes. A cheer went up in the Eastview branch of the Canadian Legion, quarts of beer were hoisted in the air, and Fleury never looked back.
By 8:40, to the beat of The Heavy’s rock song, How You Like Me Now?, Fleury strode into his party on the crest of victory, hugging supporters and campaign workers to hoots and hollers.
“I’m not standing here alone,” he began his victory speech, calling up his campaign team, including his mother.
“It’s unbelievable, together, what we’ve been able to achieve. Don’t you think?”
A tight race was expected, given that Fleury took the seat with a narrow 88-vote margin four years ago over incumbent Georges Bédard.
When first elected in 2010, not only was he young (25), and relatively inexperienced (previously a lifeguard), but he took over a ward with a number of long-standing, thorny problems.
Rideau-Vanier, with a population of about 48,000, is possibly the city’s most diverse ward, taking in Lowertown, Sandy Hill, the ByWard Market and a good portion of Vanier.
Easily the youngest of 23 councillors, Fleury’s early wobbles in the job — and that youthful exuberance — might account for the entry of two strong, established opponents.
Marc Aubin, 34, a federal public servant and former president of the Lowertown Community Association, and Catherine Fortin LeFaivre, 32, a communications director at a national not-for-profit organization, were the most serious of the five contenders.
Both have deep roots in the community, and during the campaign questioned how well Fleury had done in representing the ward. In particular, they noted how soon after his election Fleury had to declare a conflict of interest on some zoning issues because his father works for an active developer, Claridge.
They also questioned his commitment to protecting heritage buildings and his supposed lack of aggressiveness toward the ward’s “slum landlords.”
Rideau-Vanier has no shortage of intractable problems. The heavy-truck traffic on King Edward Avenue, for instance, has long been a sore point in the ward and talk of a possible tunnel, now in the study stages, means a final solution is years away, with uncertain funding.
On the social side, meanwhile, Rideau-Vanier is home to a nucleus of homeless shelters, which leads to ongoing concern about vagrancy, panhandling, addiction issues, petty crime and affordable or supported housing.
With the presence of the University of Ottawa, there are periodic spikes in complaints about the sprawl of the campus, the growth in student housing and the attendant noise and nuisance issues.
Development, too, is always under a microscope because of high-profile locations like the Rideau Centre (expansions, LRT), the ByWard Market (flipping from food stalls to a bar-nightclub magnet) and Sandy Hill, which has areas both tony and low-income.
Rideau Street, meanwhile, was undergoing a facelift and there was strife about whether development should be low-rise mainstreet style or whether 20-plus towers should proliferate. At the same time, Vanier’s main street was undergoing a revitalization.
Trailing the three higher profile candidates were David-George Oldham, Marc Vinette and George Atanga.
During the campaign, Fleury touted his first-term efforts in the redevelopment of Jules Morin Park and Rideau Street, expansion of cycling routes in the ward, the pedestrian bridge at Donald-Somerset Street and a tightening of regulations pertaining to noise violations, property standards and the maintenance of vacant and heritage property.
Related
Mathieu Fleury, re-elected in Rideau-Vanier, gets some victory hugs on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014.
Mathieu Fleury celebrates after being re-elected on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014.
Supporters of Mathieu Fleury of Rideau-Vanier, Ward 12, wait at the Royal Canadian Legion in Vanier.
Supporters of Mathieu Fleury of Rideau-Vanier, Ward 12, wait at the Royal Canadian Legion in Vanier.
查看原文...
