Elsa Niyongabo

The City of Ottawa’s list of certified candidates for Ward 18 shows Elsa Niyongabo’s nomination dated August 14, 2026, and her registration in the Contribution Rebate Program dated August 21, 2026. She gave the City a campaign website and Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn addresses. CBC News calls her a political staffer and CTV News Ottawa calls her a federal public servant. The sitting Councillor, Marty Carr, and three other challengers (Muhyadin Omar Barkhat, Tressy El-Hawi and Derek McSweeney) are also certified in the ward.

In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she says she has four years of federal government experience, starting with Canadian Heritage and the Prime Minister’s Office under Justin Trudeau and most recently with the Secretary of State for Children and Youth. She also says she has worked in election campaigns in Ottawa South and in Montréal, including Papineau and Terrebonne, doing local organizing and speaking directly with voters. She says her first jobs were with French-language community organizations: the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne et acadienne, the Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada. In the CBC News questionnaire she says she worked with three federal ministers, was Vice-President of the ISSV students at La Cité, and holds a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in communications and public relations. Her campaign site says the degrees are a bachelor’s in public relations and a master’s in communications from the University of Ottawa, and that her last federal job was Press Secretary and Communications Advisor to the Secretary of State for Children and Youth. A Government of Canada media advisory dated June 15, 2026 names an Elsa Niyongabo as Communications Advisor and Press Secretary in that office, and the title matches. voche.me did not check her degrees, her election campaign work, or her earlier jobs.

In the CBC News questionnaire she says she lived in Alta Vista for five years, then bought a home outside the ward, and that her family still lives in Alta Vista. She names transit as the City’s biggest challenge, gives no tax figure for the 2027 budget, and says any increase to the police budget should be strategic and evidence-based. She gave no answer on how to cover OC Transpo deficits or on whether adding more homes in existing neighbourhoods will matter for housing. In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she says any new infrastructure levy (a special tax charge for roads and sewers) needs a clear plan and an assessment of needs, and that she wants fares kept affordable for students, seniors and families. Her campaign site lists affordable housing, safer streets near schools, more reliable OC Transpo service with more bus shelters, bilingual programs and community centres, and protected green space. In a first-person article in Black Ottawa Scene she says that Alta Vista has not received the funding needed to expand its community centres. These are her own statements, and voche.me did not check the funding claim.