Watson: To Ottawa council, one piece of advice — 'Family first'

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I’m always leery of outgoing politicians offering advice to their successors, regardless of the level of government they might be leaving. Having said that, and being asked to do so by the Citizen, I will give one piece of advice that I didn’t always follow myself!

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Most of our residents will recall the major incident at an important intersection in our city’s downtown core that impacted a number of businesses, particularly the Westin Hotel and the Rideau Centre. The great sinkhole that broke open at the corner of Rideau and Sussex swallowed a van and required over 300 cement trucks to fill.

While most will remember the event, I suspect very few will remember the date on which it occurred. I remember it very clearly: June 8, 2016.

I know that date because it was my father’s 91st birthday.

My sister, Jayne, and I were taking my father for lunch at a restaurant at Lansdowne, across the street from his long-term care home. As soon as we sat down for our meal, I was notified about the emergency.

City staff suggested that this was a major event and that I should head down to see first-hand what was happening. There was a sense that the hole could spread and destroy some older buildings in the vicinity.

Here was the dilemma I faced: I’m the mayor of Ottawa, but I’m also a son.

While I had no real idea how serious the situation was, I decided that I was not going to leave our dad’s birthday celebration, and I would visit the site after our meal.

I’m so glad that I made the decision to put family ahead of work, because three days later, my dad passed away. I don’t think I could ever have forgiven myself if I had left our celebration to travel downtown.

If I had left the lunch earlier, I wouldn’t have had that time to have a few laughs and share a few stories with my sister and father.

I’m sharing this story because I urge all elected officials, and in this case, the new members of Ottawa council, to always put your family ahead of everything else, notwithstanding the pressures that come with being on-call at all hours as a politician.

The same advice goes for your friends as well. Since I was never very good with work/life balance, I lost contact with a lot of my core group of friends. I was rarely available to simply hang out, go to a movie or host a brunch.

Before the pandemic, I would attend upwards of 14 or 15 community events on a Saturday, and maybe five or six on a typical Sunday. That kind of work schedule didn’t leave much time for personal moments.

I now hope to reconnect with friends and use some of my new-found time to “have a life,” and regardless of what the future holds, make sure I try to practise what I’ve preached. “Family first” should be the mayor’s and councillors’ guiding light as the new term of council is set to begin.

The sinkhole wasn’t going anywhere, and spending that precious time with my sister and father was the right choice.

There is much more to life than politics.

Jim Watson served as Ottawa’s mayor 1997 to 2000 and from 2010 to 2022. He did not run for re-election on Monday.

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