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.
Sherif Rizk is running for councillor in Orléans East-Cumberland Ward. Here are the answers, exactly as they arrived.
Why are you running?
I’m running because I believe Orléans East-Cumberland needs a councillor who plans ahead rather than waiting for problems to become crises.
I’m a lawyer, small-business owner and longtime Orléans resident. My career has largely involved people coming to me when something has gone wrong and asking me to figure out what happened, who is responsible and how we fix it. I think City Hall needs more of that mindset.
Whether it is unreliable transit, deteriorating roads, growth without supporting infrastructure or residents being told that nothing can be done about a local problem, too often government reacts after the fact. I’m running to bring a more proactive, accountable approach to representing Ward 1.
What is the single biggest issue facing the people you want to represent, and what would you do about it?
The biggest issue is whether our infrastructure and public services can keep pace with the growth of our community.
Orléans East-Cumberland is growing, but housing cannot be considered separately from transportation, roads, water and sewer infrastructure, parks and other community services.
My approach is to grow with purpose. That means supporting more housing and appropriate density, particularly around rapid transit and major corridors, while making infrastructure capacity part of the development conversation from the beginning. It also means maintaining what we already own before deterioration makes it more expensive to fix.
Growth is coming. The question is whether we grow by accident or grow with purpose.
Name one specific thing you would work on in your first year in office.
I would establish measurable transit reliability standards for Orléans.
Opening the LRT extension to Trim is an important milestone, but it is not the finish line. Residents ultimately care about how long it takes them to get where they are going.
I want OC Transpo to publicly measure the passenger experience, including journey times, waiting times, missed connections and the reliability of local buses connecting with LRT at Trim and Place d’Orléans. My platform also proposes an Orléans Transit Reliability Guarantee, with a future-trip credit when applicable reliability standards are missed for reasons within OC Transpo's control.
If the statistics say the system is reliable while residents are routinely experiencing long waits and missed connections, we are measuring the wrong thing.
What is something the City gets wrong today that you would change?
Too often, City Hall treats explaining why something cannot be done as the end of the conversation.
Sometimes there is a perfectly legitimate legal, engineering or financial reason why a resident's preferred solution cannot be implemented. But a councillor's job should not end with forwarding that answer.
I want my office to ask: Why can't it be done? Is the information underlying that decision current? Is there another way to solve the underlying problem? Who else needs to be involved?
My standard would be simple: don't just tell residents what City Hall can't do. Find out why, explain it, and look for another way.
What should residents know about you that would not appear on a campaign flyer?
I genuinely enjoy solving complicated problems.
It is probably the lawyer in me, but when somebody tells me, "That's just the way it is," my instinct is usually to start asking questions. I want to know why it is that way, how we got there and whether there is a better solution.
That curiosity has shaped both my legal career and this campaign. Some of the ideas in my platform came from conversations at people's doors about very specific problems: a road that keeps deteriorating, a transit connection that doesn't work, a recreational facility that needs attention, or a resident who has spent years trying to get an answer from the City.
I don't expect to have the answer to every problem. I do expect myself to keep asking questions until I understand it.
Anything else you would like voters to know?
Yes. This is a competitive, multi-candidate race, and I would encourage voters to take the time to look at all of the candidates rather than allowing the election to be reduced to a contest between two names.
I have spent this campaign knocking on doors across Ward 1, meeting residents, participating in debates and community events, and building a detailed platform covering transit, roads and infrastructure, housing, community safety, recreation, economic development, climate resilience, active transportation, municipal finances and a dedicated plan for Cumberland.
I entered this race because I believed voters deserved another serious choice, and I have tried to earn that consideration by doing the work.
Ultimately, residents will decide who best represents the future they want for Ward 1. I simply hope they make that decision after taking a serious look at everyone asking for the job.
Who else is running in Orléans East-Cumberland
Orléans East-Cumberland is Ward 1: Eastern Ottawa, covering Queenswood Heights, Queenswood Village, Fallingbrook, Cardinal Creek Village, Bella Vista and Cumberland Village, bounded by Innes Road to the south. 7 people are on the ballot here. Alongside Sherif Rizk: Matthew Luloff (incumbent), Yvette Ashiri, Bob Bell, Mazhar Choudhry, Barbara Daniela Gandolfo and Tammie Trellert.
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 Sherif Rizk'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.
Sherif Rizk's ottown page: https://www.ottown.ca/elections/orleans-east-cumberland/sherif-rizk
