Candidate for Councillor in Ward 15 Kitchissippi, a former Ottawa Citizen and CBC City Hall journalist.
Joanne Chianello is on the City of Ottawa’s list of certified candidates for Councillor in Ward 15 Kitchissippi, with a nomination dated May 1, 2026. CBC News and the Kitchissippi Times describe her as a former journalist, and the Kitchissippi Times reported in December 2025 that she was a senior advisor at StrategyCorp and co-host of a podcast with a mayoral candidate. She told CTV News Ottawa that she belongs to no political party. Her campaign says its priorities are trust and transparency, reliable transit, lively main streets, affordable housing and healthier and safer communities.
Researched by voche.me · Not a campaign-authored page
The City of Ottawa’s list of certified candidates shows Joanne Chianello’s nomination for Councillor in Ward 15 Kitchissippi dated May 1, 2026, with the same date for her registration in the Contribution Rebate Program. The City’s list of elected officials for 2022 to 2026 does not include her, and the City’s list shows no withdrawal and no nomination for another office. The sitting Councillor, Jeff Leiper, is running for Mayor and is not on this ward’s ballot. CBC News describes her as a former journalist, and the Kitchissippi Times describes her as a former Ottawa Citizen and CBC municipal affairs journalist.
The Kitchissippi Times reported on December 2, 2025 that she began as a reporter at the Financial Post in 1992, spent over two decades at the Ottawa Citizen and joined CBC in 2016, where it says she broke the story of sexual misconduct allegations against a College Ward Councillor. It also reported that she was then a senior advisor at StrategyCorp, a consulting firm, and a co-host of the Better Ottawa podcast with Neil Saravanamuttoo and Jon Willing. Neil Saravanamuttoo is a candidate for Mayor on the City’s list, and voche.me did not find out whether she still co-hosts the podcast or still works at StrategyCorp. In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she says she left journalism in 2023 and has since done consulting work with a firm that has municipal expertise, and in the CBC News questionnaire she lists consulting projects for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the City of Toronto’s long-term financial plan and a survey of municipal chief administrators. She says her reporting led directly to the public inquiry into the LRT. voche.me did not check that statement with the inquiry or the newspapers.
She told CTV News Ottawa that she is not a member of any political party and that in 2025 she volunteered for NDP MPP Catherine McKenney’s campaign in February, worked in the Liberal “war room” to elect Prime Minister Mark Carney, and worked in the last days of the federal campaign to elect Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy in Carleton. She says she has lived in Kitchissippi for more than 25 years and served on a community association board.
Her campaign website lists trust and transparency, transit she says people can count on, lively main streets, affordable housing, better neighbourhoods, clean and green, and healthier and safer communities. In the CBC News questionnaire she names fixing transit as the biggest challenge, would not set the 2027 tax increase before hearing what the City needs, favours a transit levy, and says the police budget is appropriate but that Council needs more transparency about police spending. She told CTV News Ottawa that she wants free transit for people under 18 year-round, supports a reasonable police budget increase, and would explore an infrastructure levy. She proposes using public land such as Bayview Yards for affordable housing and a new recreation facility, a 10-minute free parking period on main streets, expanding the ANCHOR program, and a low-barrier sobering and stabilization service. These are her own statements. The sources voche.me read hold no complaint about her.
Summarized from the campaign’s published profile. These are stated positions, not an assessment of results or a complete platform.
Her campaign website promises that residents will know what City Hall is doing and why, before decisions are made, and raises questions about the non-disclosure agreement around a landfill purchase, closed-door library delay talks and the LRT legal battles.
Joanne Chianello campaign · Trust and TransparencyHer campaign website calls for reliable transit, more capacity and affordability, rapid transit on Carling Avenue sooner, early opening of Line 3 to Algonquin College, and a long-term bus fleet plan.
In the CBC News questionnaire she says she would fight fare increases and favours year-round free fares for youth and affordable passes for federal public servants.
Her campaign website says the City should not make running a small business harder, and proposes a 10-minute grace period on main street paid parking and consistent parking hours along Richmond Road.
Her campaign website gives this topic its own page, linked from the platform page.
Her campaign website says the City should use public land such as Bayview Yards, Tunney’s Pasture and the Graham Spry Building site for mixed-income communities with permanently affordable homes and family-sized units.
She says Bayview Yards is also the most promising site for a new major recreation facility for the ward.
Her campaign website says she would support further expansion of the ANCHOR crisis-response program, make sure residents know to call 2-1-1, and have the City explore a low-barrier sobering and stabilization service.
In the CBC News questionnaire she says not every public-safety challenge calls for more police funding.
Evidence reviewed on October 6, 2026: the City’s list of certified candidates for Ward 15 and its open data file of nominations, her campaign website (home and nine content pages), her Bluesky account and Substack home page, CBC News of August 25, 2026 and its candidate questionnaire, CTV News Ottawa of September 11, 2026, the Kitchissippi Times of December 2, 2025 and February 20, 2026, and Capital Current of October 2026.
Gaps. Her Facebook and Instagram pages showed only a login page or a profile summary, and her Substack articles were not opened. Her career, her consulting work, the Better Ottawa podcast and her statement about the LRT inquiry were not checked with the bodies named, and the Kitchissippi Times account of her employer and podcast dates from December 2025. Her party-related volunteering is her own account. The voche.me questionnaire has not been sent.
The Kitchissippi Times reports that she began at the Financial Post in 1992, spent over two decades at the Ottawa Citizen and joined CBC in 2016. She says she left journalism in 2023 and covered City affairs for 13 years.
Kitchissippi Times · Former journalist Joanne Chianello says she will run for city council in Kitchissippi, December 2, 2025The Kitchissippi Times reported on December 2, 2025 that she was a senior advisor at StrategyCorp. She describes consulting projects for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, Toronto’s long-term financial plan and a survey of municipal chief administrators. voche.me has not checked her current employment.
Kitchissippi Times · Former journalist Joanne Chianello says she will run for city council in Kitchissippi, December 2, 2025In the CBC News questionnaire she says she served on a community association board. voche.me has not checked this with the association.
CBC News · Candidate questionnaire: Joanne Chianello, Ward 15 KitchissippiProposed questions for a future interview. They have not been sent to the candidate, and no answers have been supplied.
No questions and answers have been supplied.
Ask Joanne Chianello directly. We send it to the campaign, and publish the reply here if we get one.
Facts voche.me can state about Joanne Chianello's page itself, answered directly rather than left blank.
No. This page is researched by voche.me from public sources, listed below, and is separate from Joanne Chianello's own campaign.
Not according to this profile. voche.me has not listed a current public office for Joanne Chianello.
This profile lists 20 sourced references, each with the date voche.me checked it, in the Sources section below.
The "Questions & answers" section on this page lists questions voche.me would put to Joanne Chianello in a future interview. They have not been sent yet, so the page says plainly that no answer has been supplied instead of leaving the section blank.
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