Ottawa politics watchers will recognize the name Mathieu Fleury, and he's back with a new chapter in public service. After serving as an Ottawa city councillor for over a decade, representing Rideau-Vanier, and spending another year as chief administrative officer for the City of Cornwall, Fleury is now running for a trustee position with the Conseil des Écoles Publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario (CEPEO), the French public school board serving Ottawa and Eastern Ontario.
Who Is Mathieu Fleury
Fleury built a reputation at Ottawa City Hall as a councillor deeply engaged with downtown and inner-city issues, representing one of the city's most diverse and dense wards. His time on council spanned major debates over housing, transit, and community services in the urban core. After leaving council, he pivoted to municipal administration, taking on the CAO role in Cornwall, a position that gave him hands-on experience running the operational side of local government rather than just setting policy from the council table.
Why the School Board Race Matters to Ottawa
CEPEO oversees French-language public schools across a wide swath of Eastern Ontario, including a significant presence in Ottawa itself. For the city's Francophone community, trustee races often fly under the radar compared to mayoral or council elections, but they carry real weight — decisions about school funding, program offerings, and facility planning directly affect families across Ottawa's French-speaking neighbourhoods. Fleury entering this race brings a higher public profile to a role that doesn't always get much attention.
His background gives him a somewhat unusual résumé for a school board candidate. Rather than coming up through parent councils or teaching, Fleury's path runs through municipal policy and administration, areas that overlap with school governance on issues like infrastructure, budgeting, and public accountability. Supporters of his candidacy will likely point to that governance experience as an asset for a board that manages a substantial public budget and workforce.
What's Next
Details on the timeline and format of the trustee race, along with other candidates who may enter, are expected to become clearer as the process moves forward. For Ottawa residents with kids in the French public system, or anyone tracking where former city hall figures land next, Fleury's candidacy is one to watch.
It's also a reminder that political careers in Ottawa don't always follow a straight line from council to Queen's Park or Parliament Hill. Local governance roles, including school boards, remain a significant way for experienced public servants to keep contributing to the city and region without seeking higher office.
Whether Fleury wins the trustee seat or not, his move signals continued interest in shaping public institutions that touch Ottawa families directly, just from a different vantage point than city council.
Source: Ottawa Citizen
