Ottawa votes on Monday, October 26, 2026, and we wanted to hear from the people on the ballot in their own words. So we sent the same six questions to every certified candidate in the city, with one promise: we publish what you send back, unedited.
Dillon Anderson is running for councillor in Somerset Ward. Here are the answers, exactly as they arrived.
Why are you running?
I am running because Somerset Ward deserves a City Hall that focuses relentlessly on the basics: reliable core services, fiscal discipline, safe streets, and real accessibility. For too long, residents have watched taxes rise while basic infrastructure and public order are neglected. As a wheelchair user, I bring a lived perspective to municipal planning, ensuring our city works equitably and efficiently for everyone.
What is the single biggest issue facing the people you want to represent, and what would you do about it?
The biggest issue is the decline of public safety, cleanliness, and vibrancy along our commercial corridors, paired with a housing affordability crunch. To fix this, I will champion a funded downtown safety and vibrancy plan that pairs compassionate social supports with proactive bylaw enforcement and rapid sanitation. Simultaneously, I will cut approval bottlenecks to accelerate housing construction and bring predictability back to our neighborhoods.
Name one specific thing you would work on in your first year in office.
In my first year, I will overhaul internal planning and departmental coordination to establish strict, binding service standards and parallel reviews for housing and infrastructure applications, aiming to eliminate inter-departmental bottlenecks and reduce approval timelines across Somerset Ward.
What is something the City gets wrong today that you would change?
The City currently operates in siloed, reactive departments that treat infrastructure repair, transit reliability, and public safety as disconnected issues rather than symptoms of a broken service model. I would change this by enforcing strict cross-departmental accountability, prioritizing "fix-it-first" core maintenance, and using public-facing performance dashboards so residents can track real delivery instead of endless study phases.
What should residents know about you that would not appear on a campaign flyer?
Beyond politics, my lived experience navigating everyday urban infrastructure as a wheelchair user has given me an uncompromising eye for detail and practical problem-solving. When I spot a broken sidewalk ramp, a poorly timed signal, or an inefficient municipal process, I don't just see an inconvenience, I see a systemic failure of basic management that affects seniors, parents with strollers, and residents with disabilities alike. That resilience and insistence on practical functionality drive everything I do.
Who else is running in Somerset
Somerset is Ward 14: Downtown, including Parliament Hill, Centretown, Chinatown and Little Italy. 5 people are on the ballot here. Alongside Dillon Anderson: Ariel Troster (incumbent), Robert Dekker, Nicholas Gollé and Michael Tay.
They have all had the same six questions. We publish each set of answers as it comes in.
When you can vote
Ottawa votes on Monday, October 26, 2026, with advance voting before then. The City's certified candidate list is the authority on who is on your ballot.
About this piece
These are Dillon Anderson's own words, published as sent. We have not fact-checked the claims in them, and running them is not an endorsement. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.
Dillon Anderson's ottown page: https://www.ottown.ca/elections/somerset/dillon-anderson
