A group of Ottawa civic and business leaders today announced the formation of Fair Chance 2010, a group dedicated to attracting and encouraging high-quality candidates for this fall´s municipal election.

"People have been talking about change on Ottawa city council, but the first step is having a field of strong candidates," said committee chair and former ´A´ News Anchor Sandra Blaikie. "We believe it´s a noble thing to serve your community and we hope to encourage smart, accomplished people with leadership skills to seriously consider serving one or two terms on council."

The Fair Chance Committee works on a simple premise. If Ottawa is going to elect qualified city councillors, we need to start by getting strong candidates to run, so that Ottawa voters will have real choices to make in October. The committee wants to give a fair chance to well-qualified candidates who might lack name recognition, campaign experience and political war chests. The goal is not to endorse candidates, but to identify and mentor candidates that are worth serious consideration by voters. The committee will be looking for candidates with leadership experience, knowledge of budgets and a broad perspective on the future of the city.

The committee will not be involved in the mayoral campaign, focusing instead on the often-neglected but vital races for the 23 city council seats. Committee members have a long track record of public service and have served on many major boards in the city. They will be using their own networks in the community to reach out to potential candidates but they are interested in talking to anyone who feels that he or she meets the committee´s criteria and is prepared to seriously consider running.

Committee members include: Sandra Blaikie, journalist and former ´A´ News anchor; Adam Chowaniec, technology executive and business leader; Chris Carruthers, former chief of staff at the Ottawa Hospital; Chris Henderson, owner of an Ottawa clean energy company and former co-chairman of the economic development group The Ottawa Partnership; Michael Polowin, Ottawa lawyer and Ottawa Citizen municipal columnist; Andrew Cohen, author, journalist and president of The Historica-Dominion Institute; Nalin Bhargava, dentist, United Way board member and chair of the Maharaja´s Ball; Shirley Westeinde, business leader in the construction and development industry and a longtime community activist; Jean-Jacques Blais, former Minister of National Defence in the Trudeau years and chair of the board of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

Find out more about the committee and its work at www.fairchance2010.ca

Ottawa Citizen Article - Feb 2, 2010
Community leaders rally to give Ottawa a Fair Chance

580 CFRA Interview with Sandra Blaikie