{"id":55379,"date":"2026-05-21T23:37:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/55379\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:37:52","slug":"can-neil-saravanamuttoo-become-ottawas-zohran-mamdani-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/55379\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Neil Saravanamuttoo become Ottawa’s Zohran Mamdani? | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the race for mayor is on, and we know who is running<\/a>, one of the more intriguing questions to ponder, is whether Neil Saravanamuttoo can become Ottawa\u2019s Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, you will recall, was the upstart candidate who, against the odds, ran against a former governor and a former mayor in the New York City mayoral race, and won. Can Saravanamuttoo<\/a> make his own history in Ottawa? Will Ottawa voters back such an untried and untested candidate?<\/p>\n

Ottawa may be too conservative to make such a leap of faith. Still, Saravanamuttoo\u2019s participation will elevate the contest by making it a campaign of ideas, not personalities or political CVs. Even as a community activist and organizer, Saravanamuttoo came at issues with facts and figures, not just words. He did it during the Lansdowne debate with clear financial analysis of the redevelopment project and its financial pitfalls. His recent take on how to fix OC Transpo is similarly based on facts and figures. He doesn\u2019t just promise to fix OC Transpo, he shows with figures how he\u2019ll do it. You may not like his prescriptions \u2014 for instance, his \u2018Buck a Ride,\u2019 plan for OC Transpo \u2014 and you can question his figures. But there is no denying that he argues with numbers, and lays it out for the voter to accept or reject.<\/p>\n

Going into the election, the acknowledged favourite is Mayor Sutcliffe, and conventional wisdom holds that veteran Coun. Jeff Leiper<\/a> would be his biggest challenger. Saravanamuttoo in this narrative, is on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

Sutcliffe has all the advantages of incumbency \u2014 the bully pulpit and the capacity to set the agenda. As well, Sutcliffe has generally run a good city, steady as she goes. The chaos and lack of civility that characterized the previous city government has disappeared. Councillors can disagree without being disagreeable, and there is a sense of collegiality that makes for a better city government. All credit to Sutcliffe. Of course, it hasn\u2019t all been smooth-sailing. For one, the handling of Lansdowne redevelopment and the costs that the city has to bear now \u2014 and into the future \u2014 remains worrisome. And the fact that despite the city\u2019s large financial outlay, the end product couldn\u2019t accommodate the city\u2019s hottest sports team, the Charge, raises questions about judgement. But Sutcliffe\u2019s biggest problem is transit. Sutcliffe promised to fix OC Transpo during his 2022 campaign, but four years on, problems persist. In some cases, they have worsened.<\/p>\n

The campaign may well become a contest of competing transit plans. Leiper has released part of his platform with transit at the top of the list. Saravanamuttoo has \u2018Buck a Ride,\u2019 and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll soon see what Sutcliffe is offering.<\/p>\n

Leiper, a long-serving councillor has developed a big profile, particularly since he became chair of the powerful planning committee. He is seen as level-headed, but how he is viewed in the rural and outer suburban areas may well determine his chances. No question he will give Sutcliffe a run for his money.<\/p>\n

Money talks in a political campaign, and there is little doubt that Sutcliffe will scoop bags of it for his campaign. In 2022, Sutcliffe raised $537,824, but there are questions over whether he took any developer donations. He had promised to not do so, but some say he didn\u2019t keep his word.<\/p>\n

Saravanamuttoo is the wild card. Raw, unsung and unknown, he has a hard road to travel to sit in the mayor\u2019s chair. He\u2019ll be easy to dismiss. And despite his strong community activism, it remains unknown where or how he\u2019ll find money to run a serious campaign. But this is no fringe candidate. An economist and finance executive in the federal public service, he is solid, with considerable potential. But will Ottawa, a city not known to take risks, take a huge gamble and elect him?<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it say something about Ottawa if we could elect our version of Zohran Mamdani?<\/p>\n

Mohammed Adam is an Ottawa journalist and commentator. Reach him at nylamiles48@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the race for mayor is on, and we know who is running, one of the more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7289,24474,24472,3221,61,24473],"class_list":["post-55379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-community-engagement","tag-jeff-leiper","tag-neil-saravanamuttoo","tag-oc-transpo","tag-ottawa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}