---
title: "Catherine McKenney endorses Jeff Leiper for mayor of Ottawa"
description: "The Ottawa Centre MPP chose Leiper over former colleague Neil Saravanamuttoo, citing Leiper's eight years on city council."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/on/ottawa-2026/news/mckenney-endorses-leiper-2026-10-19"
last_updated: "2026-10-19T17:53:43.684Z"
---

Catherine McKenney, the Ottawa Centre MPP, endorsed Jeff Leiper for mayor of Ottawa on October 19, choosing the longtime city councillor over former close colleague Neil Saravanamuttoo, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

McKenney cited Leiper's council experience as the reason for the choice. "I think it's a difficult job. I just felt that you need that experience, and I feel that Jeff has it," McKenney told the Citizen. "You cannot be an effective mayor if you've never been on council."

Saravanamuttoo had worked alongside McKenney before this race. He served as McKenney's economic adviser during their 2022 mayoral campaign. After McKenney lost that election, the two co-founded CityShapes, a national non-profit focused on advocacy and community engagement for better cities, in 2023. Despite that history, McKenney chose Leiper when both sought the city's top job.

Saravanamuttoo told the Citizen he was not offended. He attributed the decision to party loyalty. "Catherine is a member of the NDP and party politics comes first in a lot of these decisions," he said. "The NDP wanted a mayor in the City of Ottawa. I don't take it personally; it's just party politics."

He also pushed back on the idea that Leiper is the stronger challenger to incumbent Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. "Jeff has some support in the core among downtown progressives, but his support in the rest of the city is just not sufficient," Saravanamuttoo said. "We need a candidate who can attract voters from all of the different regions of Ottawa, and that's me."

Leiper welcomed the endorsement. "They and I share many of the same values and approaches. I'm grateful that they've chosen to express that publicly," he told the Citizen.

Both Leiper and Saravanamuttoo have said they hold second place behind Sutcliffe, pointing to different polls. Ottawa voters choose the mayor on October 26, 2026. You can read about all four mayoral candidates, including [Jeff Leiper](/on/ottawa-2026/candidates/jeff-leiper) and [Neil Saravanamuttoo](/on/ottawa-2026/candidates/neil-saravanamuttoo), at [/on/ottawa-2026/candidates#mayor](/on/ottawa-2026/candidates#mayor).

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](/on/ottawa-2026/sitemap.md) for all pages.