Derek McSweeney

The City of Ottawa’s list of certified candidates for Ward 18 shows Derek McSweeney’s nomination dated July 14, 2026, with the same date for his registration in the Contribution Rebate Program. The list gives a campaign website for him. CBC News calls him a retired public servant, and CTV News Ottawa calls him a former public servant. The sitting Councillor, Marty Carr, and three other challengers (Muhyadin Omar Barkhat, Tressy El-Hawi and Elsa Niyongabo) are also certified in the ward.

In the CBC News questionnaire he says he has lived in Alta Vista for 60 years and retired from a 25 year career as a federal public servant. In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire he says he grew up in a political family, worked in the federal public service during the Mulroney and Harper years, and for over 20 years was a driver and political assistant for federal Ministers. He says he retired in 2015 and has been a part-time Uber driver since. His campaign website says he spent 30 years working as a public servant with various Ministers. The three lengths (25 years, over 20 years and 30 years) are all his own statements, and voche.me did not check his employment history.

His campaign website and platform say the City should deliver core services such as roads, sidewalks, sewers, parks, snow clearing and waste collection, and should leave issues that belong to the federal and provincial governments to them. He says he supports keeping tax increases below the rate of inflation, a line-by-line review of City spending by an outside reviewer, a ring road at the south end of the city, and more buses and drivers for OC Transpo. He says the Ottawa Police Service budget should increase and that the City should explore a plant that burns garbage to make energy. He opposes ALTO and says he would move a motion at Council asking the federal government to cancel it. On housing he says he supports tall buildings at or near transit hubs and adding land for building outside the current built-up area, and says he would oppose four-unit and six-unit buildings in established neighbourhoods unless they fit the street and have parking. On drug addiction and homelessness he says he wants to explore treatment that people on the street with addiction and mental illness can be required to enter, as Manitoba and Alberta are doing, and tougher federal penalties for people who sell hard drugs. His platform quotes figures on property tax and fee increases and on a City infrastructure backlog. voche.me did not check those figures or the police figures he gives.