---
title: "Nearly half of Ottawa residents are neutral on the city's direction, Nanos poll finds"
description: "A Nanos Research survey of 762 Ottawa residents, conducted Oct. 4-8 for CTV News Ottawa, found 48 per cent are neutral on the direction the city is going, with 34 per cent saying it is heading the right way and 15 per cent saying the wrong way."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/on/ottawa-2026/news/ottawa-direction-poll-2026-10-12"
last_updated: "2026-10-12T13:49:19.648Z"
---

Nearly half of Ottawa residents are neutral on the direction the city is going, according to a new poll. Residents in the east and west ends of the city were more likely than downtown residents to say Ottawa is heading in the right direction.

Nanos Research surveyed 762 randomly selected Ottawa residents between Oct. 4 and Oct. 8 for CTV News Ottawa. Respondents rated the city's direction on a scale from 0 to 10. Forty-eight per cent said they are neutral. Thirty-four per cent rated the city as heading in the right direction (7 to 10 on the scale), and 15 per cent said it is going in the wrong direction (0 to 3).

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

"Ottawa residents are twice as likely to rate that the city is going in the right direction (34 per cent) than the wrong direction (15 per cent)," Nik Nanos, Chief Data Scientist at Nanos Research, said in the CTV News Ottawa article.

## East and west more positive than downtown

Views on the city's direction split by geography. Residents in Ottawa's east and west ends were more likely to say the city is heading in the right direction. Nanos Research found 41 per cent of respondents in Ottawa's east and west ends rated the city as going in the right direction.

Downtown Ottawa had the lowest rate, at 26 per cent, and rural respondents were at 28 per cent.

For the wrong-direction reading, downtown had the highest rate at 21 per cent. Seventeen per cent of rural respondents said the city is going in the wrong direction. In the east end, 13 per cent gave that rating, and in the west end 11 per cent did.

## How residents rate City Hall's listening

Nanos Research also asked respondents how well City Hall does at listening to people in neighbourhoods, on a five-point scale. Thirty-seven per cent said the city does an average job. Twenty-six per cent gave a good or top rating (20 per cent good, 6 per cent at the top of the scale). Thirty per cent gave a poor or bottom rating (19 per cent poor, 11 per cent at the bottom of the scale).

Downtown Ottawa had the highest rate of poor or bottom ratings: 29 per cent said poor and 10 per cent gave the lowest rating. The east end had the most positive ratings, with 25 per cent saying good and 8 per cent giving the highest rating.

## Voters go to the polls Oct. 26

The City of Ottawa election is Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. The advance voting day is Friday, Oct. 16, with voting places open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The CTV News Ottawa mayoral debate is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 10 a.m.

Fourteen candidates are running for mayor. Candidate profiles, including each candidate's stated platform and source links, are at [/on/ottawa-2026/candidates#mayor](/on/ottawa-2026/candidates#mayor).

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