Ottawa election round-up: Some things change, some don't

Ottawa voters wanted change - or did they? We’ve got a new mayor, but every Ottawa councillor who ran for re-election was voted back onto council.

Some quick election notes:

 * 
Over 50% voter turn-out.  That is considered pretty damn good for a municipal election.
  

  


 * 
The new mayor & councillors
  

  


 * 
How did mayoral candidate

 Robert Larter

pull in 667 votes?  He didn't show up to any candidate debates, and as far as we've seen, no local media outlet was able to interview him or profile him.
  

  


 * 
One ward was close.  Really close.  In

 Rideau-Vanier

, the fight between Georges Bedard vs. Bruce McConville came down to about 200 votes.
  

  


 * 
Early in the night, it looked like a tight race between Steve Desroches and Andy Hayden in

 Rideau River South

, but Desroches pulled away with 1,000 votes more than his opponent.
  

  


 * 
One race that was expected to be close didn't turn out that way.   Two-thousand votes separated Cullen vs. Kilrea in

 Bay Ward

, with Cullen taking the victory.
  

  


 * 
Nice to see

 Bob Chiarelli

congratulate Larry in person at O'Brien's campaign headquarters.
  

  


 * 
In school board election news, voters in Orleans picked 18-year-old
[
 John Shea
](http://www.eastottawa.ca/article-52011-Public-school-supporters-vote-in-18yearold-trustee.html)

 .

  

  


 * 
Not much re: election news tonight in the blogosphere.  Good post from

 Mark Bourrie

on Ottawa Watch: "The mayor, who is the natural spokesman for the city, has one message. The majority of council has another.  I've seen this type of thing before, and it's not pretty.
  

O'Brien didn't have it together to run a slate. I get the impression his decision was made at the spur of the moment, after Brian McGarry and Terry Kilrea backed out. I bet they're both kicking themselves tonight."
[
 Read the post...
   

   

](http://ottawawatch.blogspot.com/2006/11/larry-obrien.html)

 * 
Another blog post from

 Daimnation

, on the quick, orderly voting process in Ottawa: "The electronic voting system is simple and clear. Fill in the blank with your pencil. Ballot is run through machine which counts votes but paper ballot is retained in case of recount. Why not in the US?"
[
 Read the post...
](http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/008136.html)

** Related: ** Ottawa Election Guide (including full election results)