Sean Devine

The City of Ottawa's list of elected officials for 2022 to 2026 shows Sean Devine as Councillor for Ward 9 Knoxdale-Merivale, and the Council minutes of September 9, 2026 list him as present. The City's published results for the October 24, 2022 election give him 4,812 of the 12,276 votes cast in Ward 9, which is 39.2 percent, in a race of seven candidates. CBC News describes him as a former playwright, theatre director and community association president. The City's page for him, read as an Internet Archive copy of August 11, 2025, says he ran as the NDP candidate for Nepean in the 2015 and 2021 federal elections, served seven years with the Trend Arlington Community Association including four as president, and worked as a program officer for the Canada Council for the Arts. The City's list of certified candidates shows his 2026 nomination dated July 16, 2026.

In the CTV News questionnaire he says he spent more than 25 years in arts and culture as a producer, actor and playwright and ended that career as a funding officer for the Canada Council for the Arts. His campaign website and the City's page, which his office wrote, say his work leading recovery after the 2018 tornado earned him the 2019 United Way Community Builder of the Year Award and the Mayor's City Builder Award. These are his own statements, and voche.me has not checked them with those organizations.

The Council minutes of December 10, 2025 record him voting for the 2026 Ottawa Police Service budget (carried 20 to 5), for an amendment to add $5.4 million from the Tax Stabilization Reserve for community-based safety and crisis response (lost 9 to 16), against the Transit Committee budget item (carried 20 to 4), and against the motion that adopted the 2026 budget reports (carried 21 to 4). The same minutes record him as the mover of the procedural motions that opened and closed the budget session, including the motion to adopt the budget reports. In the CBC News questionnaire he says he opposed police budget increases for the first three years of the term and supported the 2026 increase because he saw service improvements, and that further increases should depend on police support for expanding the ANCHOR program, which sends non-police teams to people in mental health or addiction crisis.

The minutes of April 17 and April 22, 2026 record him voting against the Safe Access to Social Infrastructure By-law, which bans demonstrations within 50 metres of designated schools, places of worship, hospitals and care homes, at committee (15 to 2) and at Council (carried 20 to 4). They also record him moving amendments to remove the ban on demonstrations (lost 3 to 14 at committee and 6 to 18 at Council) and a motion to discuss the by-law's legal advice in private (lost 7 to 17). CTV News Ottawa quotes him telling councillors that the by-law would prohibit demonstrations in the zones even when they do not block anyone.

The minutes of July 15, 2026, the first Council meeting after the July 1 storm and flooding, record him as the mover of Motion 2026-83-06, which directs staff to examine the causes of the flooding in Wards 7, 8 and 9 and in the Graham Creek area, and of Motion 2026-83-07 on working with the insurance industry on flood risk. Both carried. They also record his dissent on the first recommendation of the Development Charge Reduction Program report, and his vote for the report as a whole (23 to 1). The minutes of September 9, 2026 record him as one of 23 members voting for a motion asking the federal government to extend its consultation on the Eastern Bridge Project.

CBC News reported on September 23, 2026 that Devine said candidate Anna Ielo-Tal misrepresented his positions on curbside garbage limits and on a congestion tax during a Rogers TV debate and while door-knocking, and that he asked her campaign for sources and a correction. Devine posted about it on his campaign's Facebook page on September 11. Ielo-Tal answered in her own Facebook post, saying where she found her information, saying a resident had misunderstood what she said about garbage, and saying that Devine swore at her after the debate, which she called bullying. Devine told CBC News he was angry and swore in her presence, and he rejects the word bullying. He says he has never held the garbage position and has never proposed, voted for or brought any action on a congestion tax. CBC News reports that Ielo-Tal pointed to his earlier social media posts discussing a congestion tax in New York City, in which he said it was not likely to suit Ottawa. Ielo-Tal's statement to CBC News said the posts from both campaigns speak for themselves. CBC News reports no complaint to the City or to any regulator. These are statements by the two campaigns, and voche.me has not decided between them.