The City's list of nominated candidates shows that Peter Westaway filed a nomination for Councillor in Ward 9 on May 1, 2026, withdrew that nomination on July 15, 2026, and filed a nomination for Mayor on July 15, 2026. His campaign website says he registered in Ward 9, then decided to run for Mayor and to support Cole Fraser Jones, another Ward 9 candidate, against the sitting councillor, Sean Devine. The City's list shows his nomination for Mayor and gives a website, a LinkedIn profile and a YouTube channel for him.
CBC News described him in 2022 as a bike mechanic who ran for Councillor in Ward 9 that year, and in 2025 as a former taxi driver who tunes up bicycles. CBC News also reported that he ran in the June 16, 2025 by-election in Osgoode ward and as an independent in the Nepean riding in the 2025 Ontario election. In both 2025 races CBC News said his main issue was the Ottawa Greenbelt. His website says he grew up in Nepean, drove a taxi for many years, was elected by taxi drivers to the City's Taxi Advisory Committee after amalgamation, and runs a mobile bicycle repair business called Bikemobile. These are his own statements, and voche.me has not checked them against City records.
His campaign website, titled World's Dumbest Farms, argues that the Greenbelt, the ring of mostly federal land around Ottawa's older neighbourhoods, did not stop suburban sprawl and should be changed. It says the land is controlled by the National Capital Commission (a federal agency), which makes change difficult. The site also carries short pages on waste, the police, Lansdowne, traffic, the City budget and amalgamation, and a page that tells readers to vote for Neil Saravanamuttoo for Mayor, another candidate in this race.
In his answers to the CBC News questionnaire he wrote that he would prefer a zero property tax increase and would look for savings in staff and budgets, but that he sees this as unrealistic in the first year. He wrote that the police budget should be decreased and that police should do more traffic enforcement, and that the City should use more social workers and fewer police officers when it responds to public drug use and encampments. He answered No to City funding for a new NHL arena at LeBreton Flats and No to a ring road. He answered Maybe on using the mayor's strong powers, and wrote that he is not sure why.
