Former journalist Joanne Chianello wins first election in wide open Kitchissippi Ward

Joanne Chianello, former longtime journalist for CBC and the Ottawa Citizen, has won Kitchissippi, and with it, a different angle for her life at City Hall after 13 years covering Ottawa’s municipal government.

Chianello, whose reporting on the O-Train LRT system led to a public inquiry, will now translate her intimate knowledge of Ottawa’s municipal hall to governance after winning her ward by a wide margin.

“I’m just over the moon that the people of Kitchissippi would put this trust in me. I feel the wieght of that trust to be honest and I promise that I will work hard every day to earn that trust,” Chianello said after her victory.

Chianello says her skills as a reporter will serve her on city council, like digging into complicated files, figuring out the facts from the messaging and explaining complex issues in plain language, “that’s where transprency starts, that’s how people have trust in government.”

For Chianello, exposing problems, like she did in her reporting isn’t the end. Working towards the solutions is now where she will put her energies and efforts.

“Sometimes you are watching council, or you’re watching the committee meeting, in my head, I’m thinking, ‘oh, they should have asked this, or they should have asked that, right?’ And now I can do that.”

Kitchissippi’s ward was wide open. It was one of only two wards that had no incumbent, with former councillor Jeff Leiper leaving his council seat to run for mayor.

The ward has also grown significantly with around 5,000 new voters this municipal election compared to 2022, according to David Currie, Chianello’s campaign manager.

Chianello took it as a challenge, holding around 10,000 conversations with ward residents at events and canvasses, Currie said.

“She had so much hustle, and she was able to inspire not just volunteers but votes,” Currie told the Ottawa Citizen.

“And it’s nice that people get to vote for the smartest kid in the class, like the lady who know the most about the city,” Currie said, alluding to Chianello’s decades reporting on the city.

Currie also applauded their campaign that saw around 100 volunteers work to elect their candidate. The campaign began around a year ago to the day, when Currie and Chianello held their first campaign meeting.

Over the past few months, the Chianello campaign mustered around 260 canvasses throughout the ward of around 35,000 eligible voters.

“The key to a long campaign is to build a really, really good team, people who actually want to spend time together and who get show up because they feel like they get respect and they get to make substantive contributions. And everybody in the room right now is a part of that team. It’s really nice,” Currie said.

By February, Chianello and her team were knocking on doors, telling residents that a municipal election is upcoming, in the far away month of October.

“You’re just knocking on the door, telling them there’s an election that year, telling them about yourself and who you are and that you’ll be around again. And they look at you a little strangely because you know it’s eight months away. But I think in the end, people appreciated that hard work,” said Chianello.

Several high tickets endorsements followed Chianello with Leiper, Liberal MP for Ottawa Centre Yasir Naqvi and Ottawa Centre MPP Catherine McKenney all supporting the former journalist’s campaign.

In an interview, Chainello thanked Leiper for his service, “big shoes to fill in our ward for 12 years, he worked really hard and did a lot for us.”

“I admire him so much for stepping into that role and to pick up that baton for the progressives in the city,” Chianello said about Leiper running for mayor against incumbent and mayor-elect Mark Sutcliffe.

Transparency, transit and housing affordability were among the Chianello campaign’s top priorities, according to her website.

Supporting local businesses, including on Kitchissippi’s main streets, as well as parks and recreation were also significant issues that Chianello ran on.

Three other candidates opposed Chianello including former Hintonburg community association president Brian Innes. Innes ran on transit accountability, faster snow clearing, more public restrooms and a new recreation centre.

Tech entrepreneur and ethics instructor Subhir Uppal campaigned on distance-based fares for transit and a new recreation centre at Tunney’s Pasture.

Former entrepreneur and community activist Xavier Commerford promised to phase in free transit, declaring a municipal food emergency and fully funded paramedics.

Following her victory, Chianello sipped red wine and took photos with family, friends and supporters between media interviews.

She says she is looking forward to the first orientation day, being sworn in and congratulating her council colleagues.

She also is looking to improve on being on the other side of the microphone moving forward in her next career as a politician.

“I’m hoping to have a more coherent interview the next time around,” she said. “This is much harder than it looks.”

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