Ottawa mayoral candidate Alex Lawson says his campaign comes down to one idea: get city hall to focus on the basics again.
Who is Alex Lawson
Lawson is 38 years old and has operated his own construction management company, Capital Framing, since 2017. He grew up in Heron Gate and later lived in Lowertown, Centretown, the east end and Kanata North before settling in Dunrobin, giving him a resume that touches much of the city.
"I'm here to focus on the basics, crime, transit, traffic, affordable living," Lawson said in a profile published by the Ottawa Business Journal on September 29, 2026, written by David Sali.
Parking meters and business complaints
Lawson says a Wellington Street business owner called him directly to say their business is down 40 per cent since the city installed parking meters there. He's also raised concerns about the ByWard Market District Authority, which he says operates without input from the businesses it's supposed to serve.
On housing costs, Lawson points to development charges that are up 30 per cent over the last four years, and says it currently takes three and a half years to get a project from site plan approval to registration. In a separate interview with Ottawa Life Magazine, he put a dollar figure on the gap: it costs about $67,000 to develop a single-family house in Ottawa, compared to $17,000 in Brockville. His first move if elected, he told Ottawa Life, would be to cancel the vacant unit tax.
Transit and policing
Lawson didn't hold back on OC Transpo, saying flatly that "we've got a transit system that still doesn't work." He told Ottawa Life the system lost $54 million last year.
On policing, Lawson said Ottawa has 42 officers per million residents, a ratio he says hasn't moved since 1995 despite the city's growth.
He also took aim at the city's night mayor position, saying most businesses have no idea it exists. "Most (businesses) will say, 'What night mayor? I haven't talked to him,'" Lawson said.
The federal government problem
Lawson describes Ottawa as "almost a one-industry town" because of how much the local economy leans on the federal government, a dependence he frames as a risk for a city trying to diversify.
What led here
Earlier this month he pitched scrapping every parking meter and pay station in the city in favour of free on-street parking everywhere, a proposal that lines up directly with the Wellington Street complaint he's now citing (ottown's earlier report). Ottawa has also been dealing with major infrastructure costs of its own, including the $79 million contract awarded this month to replace the aging Alexandra Bridge connecting downtown to Gatineau (ottown's earlier report).
Whether Lawson's basics-first pitch resonates with Ottawa voters will play out as the mayoral race continues. For now, his platform rests on the numbers he's been citing: falling business revenue on Wellington Street, rising development charges, a money-losing transit system and a police force he says hasn't kept pace with the city's growth since the 1990s.
Sources: Ottawa Business Journal, Ottawa Life Magazine
