Watson aims at O’Brien

tim wieclawski/metro ottawa

Mayoral candidate Jim Watson speaks to a supporter during a campaign relaunch yesterday evening at Tudor Hall.

Promises
Before both campaign kick-off parties, the Watson campaign released a statement critical of Mayor Larry O’Brien’s record on taxes and transit.

The release pointed to residential property tax increases of 14 per cent over four years despite O’Brien’s “zero means zero” promise.
Under O’Brien, the statement said, the cost of the Industrial Avenue bus garage increased from $60 million to $97 million. Transit fares increased by 25 per cent and transit ridership has fallen 3.1 per cent for this year.

Published: September 09, 2010 5:57 a.m.

Last modified: September 08, 2010 11:02 p.m.

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On an evening when Larry O’Brien was kicking off his campaign in the ByWard Market, Jim Watson took aim at his nearest rival, calling “zero means zero” one of the biggest broken promises in political history.

Watson took the stage at Tudor Hall in south Ottawa for his own kick-off party about 20 minutes after O’Brien was scheduled to deliver his speech.

He claimed to have attracted a crowd five times the size of the one that attended O’Brien’s.

In his speech, Watson criticized O’Brien for saying he has no regrets about the way he handled the OC Transpo strike.

That shows a lack of respect for the people who experienced real hardship during that strike, he said.

With six weeks left in the campaign, Watson said he still has yet to release several key pieces of his platform such as the environment, housing, tourism and transit.

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