McKenney endorses Leiper for Ottawa mayor, snubbing Saravanamuttoo

Catherine McKenney, now MPP for Ottawa Centre, endorsed Jeff Leiper for Ottawa mayor on Monday, passing over Neil Saravanamuttoo, who served as economic adviser on her 2022 mayoral campaign and co-founded CityShapes, a national non-profit focused on community engagement and city-building, with her.

McKenney said she decided to support Leiper, a longtime city councillor with whom she served eight years on council, because mayoral experience matters. "I think it's a difficult job … I just felt that you need that experience, and I feel that Jeff has it," she told the Ottawa Citizen. "You cannot be an effective mayor if you've never been on council."

Saravanamuttoo framed the endorsement as party politics. "Catherine is a member of the NDP and party politics comes first in a lot of these decisions. The NDP wanted a mayor in the City of Ottawa. I don't take it personally; it's just party politics," he said. He added that he wasn't sure he would have even asked for McKenney's endorsement this time around.

Both Saravanamuttoo and Leiper claim to be in second place behind incumbent Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, though they cite different polls. Saravanamuttoo argued that Leiper's support is concentrated among downtown progressives and that he himself can attract voters across all of Ottawa's regions. Leiper said he is grateful for McKenney's support.