There are four candidates on the ballot for councillor in Knoxdale-Merivale in the 2026 municipal election. Incumbent Sean Devine is seeking a second term after winning the 2022 election with 39 per cent of the vote. The three other candidates are Canadian Army veteran and public servant Cole Fraser Jones, public servant Anna Ielo-Tal and Brandon Ly. Knoxdale-Merivale Knoxdale-Merivale is along the Rideau River and includes the neighbourhoods of Woodvale, Craig Henry, Tanglewood, Merivale Gardens, Grenfell Glen and Pineglen. Meet the candidates CTV News Ottawa invited all registered candidates to answer a questionnaire and submit a video introducing themselves to voters. Sean Devine Age: 56 Political experience: I was first elected to City Council in 2022, and so I’m just coming to the end of my first term. Prior to this, I ran as a candidate for federal election in the riding of Nepean in the 2015 and 2021 elections. I was also elected to be the president of the Trend Arlington Community Association, where I served a four-year term. Professional experience: Prior to entering political life, I spent 25+ years in the arts and culture sector, where I held numerous roles. I was a successful theatre producer, an actor in almost 100 plays, movies and television series, and also a playwright, with my plays having been produced across Canada and the U.S. I founded and managed several successful performing arts organizations in Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa, and was a festival producer for various dance festivals and multi-cultural festivals. I ended my arts career as a funding officer for the Canada Council for the Arts. How long have you lived in Ottawa? My wife and I moved to Ottawa in 2014 from Vancouver, where our two oldest kids were born. We had two more kids in Ottawa. Favourite Ottawa location/landmark: War Memorial / Parliament / Parliament Library What was the last book you read? Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity What is the top song in your playlist? What’s a playlight? I don’t really have one. But it would likely be a song by Billy Bragg or The Lumineers. How often do you use OC Transpo? Before COVID I used it every day. Since COVID and being elected, I’ve used it rarely Would you work to increase or decrease transit fares as part of a plan to improve OC Transpo? My goal would be to freeze and/or stabilize fares until service reliability improved. It is both insulting and counterproductive to increase fares right now, and I don’t think OC Transpo could survive a significant decrease in revenues. Would you support increasing the police budget? I didn’t support increasing the police budgets for the first three years as councillor, but supported the increase in my fourth year, and only because we saw some service improvements in Ward 9. I would only support additional increases to the police budget conditionally: they need to commit to supporting the expansion of ANCHOR by relinquishing certain duties, and I need to see strong commitments to addressing the costs of overtime and suspended officers. Do you support an infrastructure levy to improve road and sewer infrastructure? Yes, but it would need to be a city-wide levy, and there would need to be clear policy in place that any kind of special infrastructure levy is explicitly to be used for addressing highest-priority needs, e.g. stormwater infrastructure upgrades in the most flood-prone areas. Describe in 250 words or less what the biggest issues are in your ward in this election: In Ward 9 (Knoxdale-Merivale), the central issue for this election is ensuring that our rapidly growing community receives the reliable infrastructure, smart planning, and responsive services it deserves. On Infrastructure & Stormwater Resilience, years of under-investment have left roads, sidewalks and aging stormwater systems vulnerable. As extreme weather becomes more frequent, upgrading our stormwater system, protecting vulnerable neighbourhoods from flooding, and fixing infrastructure before it fails are critical priorities. As our population grows, we need to choose Smart Growth over Sprawl. With density coming to Knoxdale-Merivale, growth must be backed by infrastructure from day one. By focusing new housing along transit corridors rather than encouraging costly urban sprawl, we can expand the tax base while protecting existing neighbourhoods. On Transit Reliability & Traffic Safety, Ward 9’s residents need dependable transit options and safer streets. Addressing missed bus trips, improving transit reliability, and implementing traffic calming near schools and major intersections. And when it comes to Community Safety, keeping our neighbourhoods safe requires modern, accountable policing paired with proactive community supports, such as expanding the ANCHOR alternative response model for mental health and addictions crises. Finally, none of this works without Fiscal Accountability & Innovation, to generate maximum value on investment. To build a stronger future, we need to invest more in our most urgent priorities, spend smarter with every taxpayer dollar, and deliver better results so that our communities can thrive. Anna Ielo-Tal Age: 50 Political experience: Events coordinator for the defence Attache liaison to Ottawa when I worked at the Israeli Embassy, I helped other attaches integrate into Ottawa, was very involved in many diplomatic events. Spent years volunteering and bringing people together through community initiatives, women’s empowerment programs, charitable events, and grassroots projects. Professional experience: I am a dedicated public servant, community builder, with a strong background in leadership, innovation, and community engagement. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Sociology from Carleton University and has built a career with the Government of Canada, working in strategic advising, innovation and transformation, operations, and technology projects. I am known for being approachable, resilient, organized, and action-oriented, with a genuine passion for helping others and making a difference in my community. How long have you lived in Ottawa? All my life Favourite Ottawa location/landmark: I love Manotick. Where I grew up and went to school. So many great memories. Small town feel. What was the last book you read? Let’s make things better, by Gidon Lev, Julie Grey What is the top song in your playlist? Bruno Mars - Risk it All How often do you use OC Transpo? I used to take the bus every day when I lived in Craig Henry. 7.5 years Would you work to increase or decrease transit fares as part of a plan to improve OC Transpo? Cup the transit fares Would you support increasing the police budget? Yes, support for the city police budget increase Do you support an infrastructure levy to improve road and sewer infrastructure? No, we need to find money by looking at our current infrastructure investments and making smart choices Describe in 250 words or less what the biggest issues are in your ward in this election: Current top issues in Ward 9: - roads and aging infrastructure; public transit, reliability, local commute increases - property taxes, affordability, cost of living - public safety, parks, street speeding Cole Fraser Jones Age: 42 Political experience: First-time candidate. I’m not a career politician. I’ve spent my working life in uniform and in public service, and I’m running because Ward 9’s infrastructure problems need someone accountable to residents, not to a party or a political ladder. Professional experience: Canadian Armed Forces veteran, tradesman, and currently a federal officer. I’ve built things, maintained things, and administered public programs, which is exactly the skill set city hall is short on. How long have you lived in Ottawa? Most of my life. I grew up in Bells Corners and returned to Nepean when I retired from the military. Favourite Ottawa location/landmark: The forest trails around Nepean. What was the last book you read? Niall Ferguson, Empire What is the top song in your playlist? Smashing Pumpkins, Bullet with Butteryfly Wings How often do you use OC Transpo? Never Would you work to increase or decrease transit fares as part of a plan to improve OC Transpo? Neither is the real lever. Fares didn’t break OC Transpo and fares won’t fix it, reliability did. Before asking riders to pay more or asking taxpayers to backfill fare cuts, the system’s costs and service standards need to be reviewed line by line, the same way I’m proposing for the rest of the city budget. Riders should pay for a reliable service, not a broken one. Would you support increasing the police budget? No. Not because the police have enough money but because the money they have isn’t producing results. Policing now consumes nearly ten per cent of the city budget, and by any measure residents care about, outcomes have gotten worse, not better. You can’t fix a management problem with more money; rewarding underperformance with bigger budgets is a recipe for disaster. I’ve proposed a Reserve Police model, built on the same principle as the Army Reserve, to expand policing capacity affordably within a structure that’s actually accountable for results Do you support an infrastructure levy to improve road and sewer infrastructure? No. The City already budgets tens of millions every year for stormwater, sewers, and roads, and residents are still flooding. The answer to budget shortfalls cannot perpetually be more taxation. Before any new levy, I’m calling for a formal program review of city spending — the same discipline the federal government used in the 1990s, to reallocate existing dollars into the projects the city actually needs, on a public, dated schedule. Describe in 250 words or less what the biggest issues are in your ward in this election: Ward 9’s biggest issue is infrastructure that has been left behind. Most of our sewers, drainage, and roads date to the 1960s and have never been meaningfully renewed. On July 1, residents across the ward watched basements flood, again. The city budgets tens of millions annually for this work, carries a $10 billion infrastructure deficit, and still cannot tell Ward 9 residents when their streets will be fixed. That is a management failure, not a money failure. The second issue is densification. Development is being approved on top of infrastructure that is already failing, with no requirement to show the pipes, roads, and stormwater systems underneath can handle it. Developers get a pass; residents get the flooding and the traffic. Provincial changes like Bill 185 have stripped residents of their appeal rights, which makes the next council term decisive — the Baseline-Merivale Secondary Plan comes to a vote, and once it passes, it’s permanent. My position is simple: growth follows infrastructure, it never outruns it. Every approval must be tied to proven servicing capacity. Third is fiscal discipline. I’m proposing a formal program review of city spending, modeled on the federal Program Review of the 1990s, paired with a 10-year rolling Strategic Infrastructure Plan so residents can see what will be fixed, when, and with existing dollars, before anyone asks them for more. Brandon Ly Candidate suspended campaign on Sept. 1. Ly’s name will appear on the ballot.
