Why McConville thinks he has a shot at office

Bruce McConville has lost two consecutive municipal races in Vanier, and you’d think a man who couldn’t win a race for city council after two tries would have no business running for mayor, especially against an incumbent as formidable as Jim Watson. Some might even go so far as to wonder why McConville, a Vanier garage owner, is even qualified to be mayor of the $3-billion corporation that is the City of Ottawa. The bigger question then is: If Vanier residents didn’t vote for McConville as councillor in 2003 and 2006, why would the larger city vote for him as mayor now?

McConville understands why some may ask such questions but says the more the city gets to know him and his credentials, the more it will embrace him.

McConville makes clear that he is not a run-of-the-mill garage owner, but a serious entrepreneur. He started a business in a wooden shack in 1981, and over the last 37 years built it into a successful 16-bay garage that is one of the largest independent repair shops in the city. Today, his garage employs 11 full-time workers and five part-timers in the fall. The garage has 33 loaners for customers and his inventory is worth some $2 million. He also owns property around town.

“I am managing a budget that needs to be adhered to, managing a large inventory, unforeseen circumstances, staff and customers and making split decisions that shape outcomes,” he says in an interview.

“I am running every aspect of a business, which is akin to running a city as a mayor. There may be more zeros in the city budget, but the skill set I have is transferable to the city.”

And as a businessman who pays a lot of taxes, he understands, more than most, the importance

The big reason I am running is to give all the communities in Ottawa a voice.

of keeping a tight budget, even though he is not “stuck on numbers,” he says. “I want taxes to be as low as possible but if I felt the projects and investments the city was making were worthy, I wouldn’t mind paying 2.5 or 3 per cent.”

Born in what was then Eastview, McConville, who will be 56 on Aug. 30, seems to be not made for formal education. He attended Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Col. By high schools but left after Grade 11, and, imbued with an “entrepreneurial spirit,” went on to establish his garage. He says he enrolled in the Queen’s University Executive MBA program in the late 1990s, took all the courses but didn’t write the final exam for a degree.

Running a business, however, has not stopped him from working to improve his community. As a key member of a group called Concerned Citizens of Vanier, he worked with the police and others to rid Vanier of some of its notorious crack houses. He is now a leading member of SOS Vanier, and says his involvement in the battle to stop the Salvation Army shelter, as well as his run for mayor, are natural progressions in his community activism.

McConville acknowledges that taking on Watson is a herculean task. Watson, he says, has been a “good but not exceptional mayor,” so he is undaunted by the challenge ahead. He believes Watson and council have failed the fundamental test of municipal government: listening to the concerns of everyday residents about their communities and working to address them. Whether it is the Glebe, Bayview, Vanier or other parts of the city, Watson has a tendency to side with big developers looking for big profits, not citizens fighting to protect neighbourhoods they call home, says McConville.

“I believe the current mayor and council do not respect communities and they do not give them voice in major development decisions. The mayor is not listening to the concerns of the communities and he is forcing them to accept development they don’t want,” McConville says.

“The big reason I am running is to give all the communities in Ottawa a voice.”

Ever the optimist, he believes he can win.