5 Questions with Orléans East-Cumberland Council Candidate Mazhar Choudhry

The following are 5 questions that we sent out to every council candidate in hopes of getting to know them better. Here are the responses from Orléans East-Cumberland Council candidate Mazhar Choudhry.

1. Who are you? Where are you from? What relevant experience do you have for the job?

My name is Mazhar Choudhry and I have called Orléans home for a quarter of a century. I am a technology entrepreneur and business owner who has spent my career solving complex problems and delivering results under real constraints. I understand what it takes to manage budgets, build teams, and execute. But beyond my professional background, I am a resident who has watched this ward get overlooked for too long. I spent months canvassing door to door across Orléans and Cumberland, sitting at kitchen tables and having honest conversations with residents about crumbling roads, inadequate transit, and a city hall that does not seem to know we exist. That experience is what is driving this campaign.

2. The city spends nearly $1B/y on OCTranspo, though many constituents remain dissatisfied with the state of Ottawa’s public transportation. What would you do as a councillor to improve the city’s transportation system?

OCTranspo needs a fundamentally different accountability model. Right now there is no meaningful link between what the operator gets paid and how well the system actually performs. I would push to adopt a pay per passenger model, similar to what Montreal implemented with the REM. When the transit operator’s revenue depends on actually moving people, incentives align. Ridership goes up, service improves, and the city stops writing blank cheques for mediocre results. For the east end specifically, I would push for a route frequency review in Orléans and Cumberland, where we consistently receive less service relative to what residents contribute, and for LRT reporting that is transparent and understandable to ordinary residents, not just bureaucrats.

3. In a December 2025 poll from Abacus Data, 37% of respondents said that cost of living was the most important issue facing the city; another 19% responded ‘housing affordability.’ What would you do as a councillor to make the city of Ottawa more affordable?

The most direct lever a councillor has on housing affordability is land. Ottawa owns significant parcels across the city that sit underused. I would push to make city-owned land in Orléans available to nonprofit housing organizations so they can build low-cost housing here, in the community, rather than expecting residents to commute to affordable units far from where they work and live. We do not need to wait for the private market to solve this. The city has the land and the nonprofit sector has the expertise. What has been missing is the political will to put the two together.

4. Certain city services like OCTranspo and the OPS have run significant deficits in recent years. Is there anything that you would do as a councillor to try to balance the city’s budget?

Deficits at OCTranspo and other city services point to a deeper problem: Ottawa lacks clear performance benchmarks and real accountability for how it spends public money. As a councillor I would push for rigorous reviews of underperforming departments, ensure that growth pays for growth by enforcing development charges that fully cover the infrastructure demands new development creates, and oppose spending that cannot demonstrate a clear return for residents. Ottawa residents are asked to pay more every year. They deserve full transparency on what they are getting in return and a council that asks hard questions when the answer is not good enough.

5. Why are you running for Council? What do you think is the biggest issue facing your ward today?

I am running because Orléans East-Cumberland deserves a councillor who shows up for more than ribbon cuttings. For too long this ward has received photo ops and promises while roads deteriorate, transit underperforms, and investment flows to other parts of the city. The biggest issue facing this ward is a lack of real representation. We have the residents, the land, and the potential to be one of the most livable communities in Ottawa. What we have been missing is someone willing to go to city hall and fight for it. That is exactly what I intend to do.