The City’s list of certified candidates shows Sam Bhalesar’s nomination for Ward 23 Kanata South dated August 10, 2026, and her registration in the City’s Contribution Rebate Program dated August 20, 2026. The City’s list gives a website and no social media account. CBC News wrote on May 7, 2022 that Sam Bhalesar was the Liberal candidate for Ottawa West-Nepean in the Ontario election, and that she then worked as a senior adviser on projects related to Canadian energy projects, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the G7 and G20. CBC News writes in 2026 that she is a former party secretary for the Liberal Party of Canada and an adviser with the federal government.
In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she lists as political experience a 2022 provincial candidacy, two terms as National Party secretary, vice president and acting president of the National Women’s Commission, and Eastern co-chair to Bonnie Crombie, whom she calls the provincial leader, and she gives 38 years of experience. She lists professional experience as senior policy analyst, senior communications adviser, Indigenous reconciliation, negotiations, budget analysis and stakeholder engagement. She names board service with the Queensway Carleton Hospital, the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, the Kanata Minor Hockey Association and Hockey Helps the Homeless, and says she founded the Canadian South Asian Women’s Chamber of Commerce. She says she has lived in Ottawa for 23 years, and in the CBC News questionnaire she gives 10 years in the ward. voche.me did not check these statements with the bodies named.
Her campaign site says she has spent more than 18 years in public service, much of it with the Government of Canada, and that she identified more than $1 million in savings and avoided costs there. It says she founded Harmony Home Care and the Ottawa Heat Hockey Club, and that the club has more than 190 players, 55 coaches and 11 managers. These are her campaign’s statements. The Canada Gazette of August 22, 2026 carries a notice, dated July 30, 2026, that the Public Service Commission gave permission to Saminder Bhalesar of Public Services and Procurement Canada to be a candidate for Councillor, Ward 23 Kanata South. The City lists the candidate as Sam Bhalesar, so voche.me notes that the Gazette gives the longer first name.
Her campaign site posts short video updates. On September 13, 2026 she said she had a parking lot at Walter Baker Park fixed and wants it paved with asphalt later, and on September 21 she said she worked with City officials to increase by-law support in one neighbourhood while a longer-term solution is explored after the election. These are her own statements, and voche.me did not check them with the City. Her home page also shows a poster, Ward 23: The Voting Record, that lists six votes by Allan Hubley and her own approach to each. The poster is her campaign’s material about another candidate. voche.me checked two of its items in the Council minutes it read, the 2026 police budget and the Rental Renovation Licence By-law, and the minutes record the same votes as the poster. The poster says he voted no to the 2026 property tax increase on December 10, 2025, and the minutes voche.me read for that day list him against five motions, none of them on a tax rate, and for the motion that adopted the 2026 budgets.
In the CBC News questionnaire she says she would support a maximum tax increase of 0 percent in 2027 after a thorough review of City spending, says major projects such as Lansdowne should be paused while the City focuses on roads, transit, infrastructure and safety, chooses a transit levy (an extra charge to pay for transit) to cover OC Transpo deficits, and says the police budget should be increased, with schools and police working together on prevention. She names the expansion of Hope Side Road and Terry Fox Drive as an example of road work that must be carried out. The sources read hold no complaint against her.
