A Progressive Voice For
Xavier Commerford is committed to preserving neighborhood character while building a vibrant, sustainable, and transparent Kitchissippi for Wellington West, Westboro, Mechanicsville, and Hintonburg.
Your Platform
Practical, resident-backed commitments to make city hall work for our community.
Submit your ideasTransit, Mobility & Smart Parking
A connected Kitchissippi requires an integrated network: dependable free buses, safe active transport, and smart road planning that respects local diners and drivers.
Bus & Light Rail
- Phased Path to Free Transit: Start with fare-free Light Rail (O-Train), establish Calgary-style Free Fare Zones in central hubs, and guarantee zero-fare transit for all minimum wage workers and ODSP recipients.
- Free Route #11: Make Route #11 fare-free through Wellington West and Hintonburg to boost Kitchissippi businesses and free up residential parking spots.
- Reverse "New Ways to Bus" Cuts: Restore lost routes and implement truthful, transparent schedules so you can plan trips accurately without ghost buses.
- Funded by Land Development: Finance free transit through economic development—leasing municipal land and air rights near stations, plus savings from dismantling fare-gates.
- Heated Micro-Hubs: Build climate-controlled shelters with library drop-offs and locker pickups.
Biking & Walking
- PRESTO Bike Share: Build a Seoul-style municipal rental bike system at all major train stations and retail hubs, fully integrated with PRESTO cards.
- Protected Active Arteries: Complete missing sidewalk links connecting neighborhood high streets to Ottawa River pathways.
Driving & Parking Realities
- Carling Bus Lanes for Better Flow: Dedicated curbside bus lanes on Carling Ave to stop heavy buses from clogging traffic, improving velocity for drivers.
- Protect Diner Parking: Oppose the 5-minute free parking scheme that turns local curbs into drop-and-go spots, directly harming restaurants that need spaces for sit-down diners.
- Against Blanket RTO Mandates: Firmly oppose mandatory federal Return-to-Office orders that cause daily traffic nightmares and choke our neighborhood bypass routes.
Safety & Crime
True community safety means tackling the root causes of addiction, refocusing police resources on serious threats, and keeping our residential streets safe from high-speed traffic.
- Expand ANCHOR: Expand the ANCHOR program to proactively address the addiction-related challenges the city faces with specialized civilian outreach, rather than relying solely on police.
- Take Serious Crime Seriously: Refocus police funding on crime solving, detective work, high-value theft, organized crime, femicide, spousal violence, and hate crimes rather than petty infractions.
- Protect Small Businesses: Redirect all shoplifting enforcement to protecting vulnerable mom-and-pop shops and local businesses, not corporate megastores that can afford their own private security teams.
- No Highway Designation on Scott or Gladstone: Firmly reject proposals turning neighborhood streets into high-speed bypasses that spill traffic into residential quiet zones.
- Safer School Zones: Deploy a Community Rapid Reporting app and physical curb-bumpouts near all ward schools and daycares.
Affordable Housing & Tenants' Rights
Density should build true neighborhoods, not speculative hyper-towers that price out families.
- Moratorium on 50+ Storey Mega-Towers: Focus on gentle midrise density and 3-to-4 bedroom family housing rather than developer mega-complexes.
- Municipal Anti-Renoviction Bylaws: Implement strict renter protections to ensure families aren't displaced under bad-faith renovations.
- Public Housing Developer: Establish a city-owned public housing developer funded by incorporating profitable mixed-use elements into buildings—such as office space, hotels, commercial, and retail—rather than relying on tenant rents.
- Right to Air Conditioning: Protect vulnerable tenants during severe heat waves by enforcing maximum indoor temperature bylaws.
Protecting Local Shops & Incubating Youth
Independent bakeries, record stores, and cafes give Kitchissippi its soul. We must keep our main streets accessible.
- Commercial Vacancy Tax: Penalize speculative landlords who sit on empty storefronts, encouraging them to lower rents for small businesses even in soft markets.
- Youth Small Business & Restaurant Incubator: Offer rent-free popup stalls and commercial kitchens to test new culinary/retail concepts, exclusively hiring Ottawa's youth for real-world job experience before graduating to full-scale leases.
- Commercial Rent Stabilization: Champion provincial tools to stop predatory commercial rent spikes killing mom-and-pop shops.
- Cut Patio Red Tape: Streamline permits for BIAs organizing sidewalk markets, patios, and art walks.
Infrastructure & World-Class Services
Tax dollars belong in core public infrastructure, not private developer corporate handouts.
- No Public Bailouts for Lansdowne 2.0: Public funds should finance public hospitals and roads — not private stadium partnerships.
- Canada-Leading Snow Removal: Enforce 4-hour active transportation snow clearing standards and implement city-wide windrow clearing to free residential driveways. Never shovel your driveway twice, ever again.
- Municipal ISP & Free City-Wide WiFi: Establish a city-run internet service provider and deploy free city-wide WiFi—including high-speed upgrades at all train stations—to make Ottawa a premier Tech City and boost tourism.
- 4-Season Public Washrooms: Build heated, year-round public washrooms at major parks and transit stations.
- Eradicate Lead from Tap Water: Fund immediate pipe replacement across all local elementary schools.
- GPS-Tracked 311 Overhaul: Bring transparency to city requests so residents can track pothole repairs and bylaw calls in real-time.
Frontline Healthcare & Paramedics
Ottawa's emergency response network is stretched to the breaking point. We need local, urgent action.
- Fully Fund 9-1-1 Responders & Paramedics: Aggressively expand paramedic hiring and fleet funding to end "Code Zero" ambulance shortages once and for all.
- Community Urgent Care Clinics: Work with the province to build neighborhood-level urgent care clinics to relieve crushing hospital ER overflow.
- Civilian Mental Health Response: Deploy specialized mental health crisis teams to appropriate non-violent calls, freeing up police and paramedics for critical emergencies.
Food Security & Local Markets
With 1 in 4 Ottawans relying on food banks, tackling food insecurity requires direct municipal intervention.
- Declare a Municipal Food Emergency: Join other major cities in releasing contingency funds to address the hunger crisis directly.
- Emergency Food Bank Funding: Establish baseline operational grants for local food banks facing unprecedented demand.
- California-Style Market Match: Implement 1:1 city dollar-matching for Ontario Works/ODSP funds spent on fresh produce at local farmer's markets like Parkdale Market.
- Public Grocery Store Pilot: Modeled after Toronto and supported by local councillors, pilot a municipal non-profit grocery store in food desert areas like Little Italy to combat corporate price gouging.
- End Child Hunger in Ottawa: Have the city step up where non-profits haven't, working with the school board to implement a city-wide school lunch program to ensure every child is fed.
- Fresh Local Sourcing: Prioritize sourcing fresh food from regional farmers for all city-funded community kitchen programs.
Inclusivity & Accessibility
A city isn't world-class unless it's accessible and welcoming to every single resident.
- LGBTQ Health Center: As a member of the LGBT community myself, I pledge to support Leiper's promise of an LGBT-specific community health clinic to meet the unique needs of the community.
- Universal Accessibility Audits: Mandate rigorous audits for all sidewalks, curbs, and crosswalks to ensure seamless mobility for wheelchairs, walkers, and strollers.
- Transit Audio Cues: Provide sound cues at specific transit stations to ensure exits and transfers can be navigated even if announcements can't be visually seen.
- Limit Conversion Practices: Limit conversion therapy-like practices in the city, including LGBTQ conversion therapy and ABA, to the extent possible by municipal power.
- Ethical Flag Raisings: End symbolic flag raisings by controversial groups or groups not led by affected members of a given community.
- Protected Gathering Spaces: Invest in safe, inclusive community hubs specifically designed to support 2SLGBTQ+ and marginalized communities.
- Oppose Bubble Bylaws: Oppose bubble zones due to Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms concerns, free speech implications, and to protect the city from unnecessary legal risks.
Climate Disaster Prevention
Severe storms and flooding are our new reality. We must harden our local infrastructure.
- Sponge Infrastructure: Rebuild neighborhood boulevards with permeable surfaces and bioswales to naturally absorb flash-flood rains.
- Mature Tree Canopy Expansion: Aggressively expand and protect the urban tree canopy to lower street temperatures and improve neighborhood air quality.
- Community Emergency Relief Hubs: Equip community centers with independent solar microgrids and high-grade clean air filtration systems for use during prolonged blackouts or wildfire smoke events.
- Basement Flood Subsidies: Expand grants for homeowners to install backwater valves and sump pumps to prevent sewage backups.
Parks, Recreation & Environment
Public spaces must be beautiful, active, and accessible through all four Ottawa seasons.
- Year-Round Commanda Bridge: Upgrade the Chief William Commanda Bridge for active use 12 months a year.
- Indoor Botanical Garden Pilot: Repurpose defunct commercial/shopping real estate into a city-owned indoor park and greenhouse.
- Brazier Heaters & Fire Zones: Add communal braziers to Parkdale Market, Laroche Park, and Westboro Beach to create cozy winter gathering hubs.
- Daily River & Air Quality Checks: Implement rigorous, publicly posted daily monitoring for the Ottawa River and neighborhood air quality.
- Eco-Friendly De-Icing: Replace corrosive road salt with traction sand and crushed volcanic material to protect plant life and river ecosystems.
- Winterize NCC Infrastructure: Partner with the NCC to keep river pathways maintained and usable throughout the winter.
Building on The Leiper Legacy
I am proudly endorsing Jeff Leiper for Mayor of Ottawa because his progressive track record is exactly what our city needs.
- Continuing the Positive Direction: Xavier supports Jeff Leiper for Mayor because his election will build upon the positive, community-first direction he has successfully championed in Kitchissippi over the past decade.
- Unlocking Progressive Change: A Leiper mayorship will break down roadblocks at City Hall, allowing ambitious, progressive policies—like those in Xavier's platform—to finally be enacted city-wide.
Tourism & Major Events
Building a world-class destination city that keeps domestic tourism dollars local and invests in ambitious, high-return attractions.
- Restore Tulip Festival Funding: Restore funding to the Canadian Tulip Festival that was slashed to zero by City Hall.
- Revive Mega-Event Ambition: Bring back world-class events, festivals, and programming that brought billions of dollars to the city during Canada 150 and Ottawa 2017.
- Defend Domestic Tourism & Staycations: Build profitable, city-run winter events to keep our staycation and tourism dollars in Canada, rather than Florida.
- World-Class Destinations: Research building profitable, large-scale destinations similar to the West Edmonton Mall or The Eden Project, not copy-paste stadium projects like Lansdowne 2.0.
- Gatineau Park Steam Train: Explore the cost feasibility of restoring steam train service to Gatineau Park, bundled with Ottawa stay packages to generate revenue and provide a unique attraction.
- Seamless Arrivals: Make it seamless to transfer from flights and VIA Rail to OC Transpo by recognizing their tickets as valid one-way fares to get visitors to their final destinations.
Born and Raised in Kitchissippi. Ready to Deliver.
Xavier Commerford didn't just move here; they know what it's like to wait for the bus to get to high school, and have it show up 30 minutes late. For over 27 years, Xavier has lived, worked, and organized in Hintonburg and Westboro. From fighting against the end of our airport bus route, to leading climate action rallies, Xavier believes City Hall must answer directly to neighbors, not corporate lobbyists.
Xavier has spent their career working for tech startups, where relentless efficiency and budgets determine if a company lives or dies. Having lived in Seoul and Montreal—learning from the best-designed transit systems in the world—Xavier pairs a deep neighborhood passion with the technical rigor needed to make City Hall actually work for you.