An Uncertain Road to Council: Colette Lacroix-Velthuis and the Politics of Osgoode Ward

Osgoode ward may be the scene of one of the most interesting and unpredictable contests in the 2026 election.

Evan Harold Potter

Dec 12, 2025

This is my first profile of someone who says she intends to run for Ottawa Council in 2026. It feels worth starting now. My hunch is that next year’s Council will look a lot like the one we’ve got. (Cue sighs of relief from a few one-term councillors who’ve been getting butterflies in their stomachs.) Most incumbents will run. Most will win. Maybe two, maybe three seats will actually be open. With luck, the political gods will throw in an upset just to keep the rest of us awake. Will there be a surprise in rural Osgoode ward? I have no idea at this early stage. But we’re not heading for anything like the turnover of four years ago. This is not an era of municipal renewal—thank you, Premier Doug Ford—however much some people might wish it were.

For anyone thinking of running against a sitting councillor, this is discouraging. Unless the incumbent is engulfed in a scandal of Rick Chiarelli proportions, the odds of unseating them are low. Not impossible. Just stubbornly low. This alone thins the herd of serious contenders. It’s one thing to dream of public office; it’s quite another to give up a year of your life for the privilege of losing to someone you don’t especially admire.

Then there’s the money. An Ottawa councillor earns a base salary of almost $120,000. Not chump change, but hardly life-changing. Which raises the question: who are these people who give up their time, privacy and reputation for the slim chance of success? The answer: usually a motley bunch of candidates. One or two might have a longish shot if they don’t end up splitting the anti-incumbent vote.

On a warm day in June, driving southeast to an all-candidates meeting for the Osgoode byelection, I could feel where Ottawa ends and this rural ward begins. The roads’ shoulders gradually disappeared; my hands tightened on the steering wheel. Except for parts of Greely, Osgoode doesn’t really bother with the curated, 30-kilometre-an-hour serenity of a Kanata subdivision. I faced large oncoming trucks and cement mixers. I was back in the ward this week, and the same roads made me tense except now there were fast-approaching pickup trucks behind me. During the byelection, when voters were asked what they wanted most from their municipal government, many didn’t hesitate: better roads.

Osgoode Ward is a rural crescent on Ottawa’s southeastern edge with towns and villages like Greely, Metcalfe, Osgoode, Vars, Vernon, Edwards, Carlsbad Springs and the farms in between, all stitched together by long straight roads built for work, not charm. It’s one of the city’s largest wards by area, home to just over thirty thousand people, mostly English-speaking, with about 14 per cent claiming French as their mother tongue. The City says agriculture pumps about $400 million into Ottawa’s gross domestic product and Osgoode’s farms deliver their share every day. Even as subdivisions expand, the ward’s identity remains stubbornly rural.

This is the landscape in which Colette Lacroix-Velthuis says she’s considering another run for Council. Of all the people who could materialize as official candidates in wards across the city when the official campaign period starts in May 2026, she would be less of a long shot against the incumbent, Osgoode Councillor Isabelle Skalski.

The Farming Life -

The Velthuis farm sits just off one of those long roads that bisect Osgoode. When you arrive, the first impression is space — big sky, and big, low barns. Nothing looks improvised.

The family raises dairy and beef cattle, but it is the purebred Wagyu herd that now draws much of the public attention. It’s good branding. These genetically distinct cattle have an almost aristocratic calm, as if they know they are the stars of the show. A typical morning starts early, Lacroix-Velthuis tells me. With the sudden frost, the water lines must be checked, one of the many routines and chores— as she calls them — she shares with her husband and their son.

Lacroix-Velthuis’s life story begins in Ottawa’s Overbrook neighbourhood, though she has lived in Osgoode for more than thirty years. She spent more than thirty-five years in high tech, much of it as an executive at IBM Canada. During the byelection she described herself as a “volunteer, proud farmer and businesswoman.” The farm is not an escape from her corporate life; it is an extension of it. She grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and has always seen herself in that mould, which makes her criminology and sociology degree from the University of Ottawa an interesting counterpoint.

As a proud Franco-Ontarian, she was the only francophone candidate in the race, though I don’t recall hearing much French at the candidates’ meetings I attended. My impression is that to many Osgoode residents her linguistic profile matters less than resolving what are considered constant irritations. They are not asking for miracles, she says. They want the basics: roads resurfaced, ditches maintained, emergency services that arrive when called. “Our constituents are asking that the city deliver the core services we deserve,” she told CBC in a pre-election questionnaire. In that answer lies the hinge of her political persona — a blend of corporate pragmatism and rural indignation.

The Vote Split -

Osgoode’s recent political history is a study in continuity and sudden change. From 2001 to 2014 Doug Thompson, a former teacher with an easygoing manner, represented the ward on Council. He was followed by George Darouze, an arguably more polarizing figure. Following the provincial election, Darouze moved up to Queen’s Park as a Progressive Conservative MPP for Carleton, leaving a vacancy and triggering the June byelection. Eleven candidates put their names forward. The field included Thompson, seeking a return; Lacroix-Velthuis, running for the first time; and Skalski, a Greely community association president and federal public servant on leave.

Lacroix-Velthuis’s 2025 campaign Facebook page dutifully chronicles her circuit: the community-centre meet-and-greets, the handshakes, and—intriguingly—a photo of her sitting beside Darouze at a long table during what looks like a community meal. On Instagram, she posts Reels with captions like “Your voice matters—Osgoode Ward by-election. Be part of the conversation,” leaning into the vocabulary of public engagement that has now become obligatory in municipal life.

Memories are long in Osgoode. Things can get personal. Some residents were convinced that Thompson believed the seat was his by right after losing to Darouze by just over 200 votes in 2022 — a detail he mentioned frequently. Others quietly wondered if, at 78, he was now past his political prime. From the beginning, some supporters of both Thompson and Lacroix-Velthuis shared the same concern: that if they both ran, they would split the non-Skalski vote and hand the seat to the newcomer. On June 16, that is more or less what happened. Skalski won with 34 per cent, while Thompson and Lacroix-Velthuis divided forty-five per cent neatly between them, with Thompson ahead by exactly three votes. Thompson was genuinely surprised to lose. Lacroix-Velthuis, who had already told a town hall that she intended to run again if she failed, was perhaps not. And few could avoid the conclusion that the outcome might have looked very different had either one stood alone against Skalski. Turnout was just over 24 per cent of eligible voters, probably to be expected for a summer byelection on the heels of provincial and federal elections. It was low enough to make the whole exercise feel like a rehearsal for the “real thing” in October 2026.

Since her loss, Lacroix-Velthuis has been careful not to dwell publicly on what could have been. But the arithmetic is hard to ignore. In October 2026, when Ottawa holds its next regular municipal election, turnout in Osgoode will likely climb back up into the mid-forties. This converts to slightly more than ten thousand voters, not the six thousand who showed up in June. In such a race, small shifts in allegiance—the presence or absence of a familiar face—could be decisive.

Which is why, in political conversations in Osgoode today, Lacroix-Veldhuis’s possible run for the Osgoode seat is usually discussed in the same breath as another question: What will Doug do? No one yet knows. He isn’t saying publicly. But almost everyone agrees that his decision on whether to run again or endorse a candidate will likely influence the outcome of the race.

Rural Values, Urban Pressures -

If I had to try to sum up the major concerns of Osgoode residents, it would be a list not unfamiliar to residents in other parts of Ottawa: dangerous roads, neglected infrastructure, very limited public transit options, and affordability. But then add some unique anxieties about their water tax and the ramifications of a mega-development like Tewin. During the byelection, I heard bitter complaints about how the City could pour money into road expansions for its suburbs but neglect the interior roads of Osgoode, those “lifelines” between villages. Some remembered pre-amalgamation municipal maintenance with something approaching nostalgia.

At the same time, the City’s policy documents speak of rural Ottawa as both economic engine and lifestyle brand: a place where farming, quarries, tourism, and small manufacturers all contribute to more than a billion dollars to Ottawa’s economy. Lacroix-Velthuis’s political answers fit naturally in that frame. She describes ARAC—the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee—as “a strong voice for our rural way of life,” and argues for a dedicated rural budget under ARAC’s control, on grounds that rural and urban needs have some fundamental differences.

With the local uproar over the City’s planned purchase of a landfill site in her ward, it’s noteworthy that she backs a waste management strategy that includes incineration. Her critics—as one would expect, there are a few—say she’s too close to the Taggart family on Tewin. She offers a calibrated answer: it’s a “unique opportunity” to bring new housing for future generations, she says, but only if paired with inclusive public consultation. On policing, she also aims for a balanced perspective. Residents want more patrols, but she insists that without timely crime reporting, the Ottawa Police Service can’t deploy officers effectively. On taxes, she backs the lowest possible increases that don’t reduce essential services—putting her in step with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who, she told the CBC, “does not set false expectations.”

If Lacroix-Velthuis runs again, it’s easy to imagine a fair bit of policy overlap between her and Skalski: careful growth, better roads, improved core services, probably agreement on Tewin. Not exactly the stuff of pitched ideological warfare. And for the average Osgoode voter who chose Skalski sixteen months ago, that may not be enough contrast to justify changing course now.

But when I ask Lacroix-Velthuis about Skalski’s reversal on Lansdowne 2.0—“No” during the byelection, “Yes” at Council—she doesn’t hesitate. “Isabelle has a track record of saying that she will vote for something and then changing her mind,” she says, matter-of-factly. It’s an opening for her to make the case for the value of having experience and knowledge at the political table, while acknowledging that “as a politician you’re not always right … and you’re learning.”

In the end, their differences seem to rest less on what should be done than on whom rural residents are prepared to trust to do it.

The Long Road Back -

After the campaign, Lacroix-Velthuis’s social-media posts shifted from the language of a candidate to that of a neighbour promising continuity. “This is just the beginning of new ways to serve and stay connected,” she told her supporters in a Facebook message. Since then she has been attending local events and volunteering with the Osgoode Ward Christmas Angel Program, not as a former candidate stepping back after a loss but as someone steadily maintaining her presence. And so has Thompson by the look of his Facebook page.

Driving home from a visit to Osgoode Village at night, the same narrow road shoulders greet me. I feel disoriented in the dark. But, as some form of compensation, I’m coming away with a cast of characters: the business executive determined to try again; the new councillor defending a slim mandate; the ex-councillor with decades of politics behind him weighing one more run. Osgoode residents have less than a year to decide whether they want continuity or change.

Lacroix-Velthuis likes to say that people choose to live in Osgoode because they “embrace the rural way of life.” In October 2026, they will have a chance to decide what that phrase actually means—and who, among those on the ballot, best represents it. For now, the coming campaign is mostly potential: signs stacked in a shed, contact lists on a laptop, conversations over kitchen tables. On the Velthuis farm, the Wagyu herd is immune to political cycles. And somewhere in the ward Doug Thompson is thinking about whether to put his name on a lawn sign again.

At the end of the day, if Lacroix-Velthuis and Thompson both run, Skalski almost certainly keeps her seat. If only one of them runs, with the other’s full blessing, she could lose. That is why Skalski’s most rational move is to “help” Thompson believe that he can still win in a three-way race. And this is why Lacroix-Velthuis’s task is the reverse: to convince him that his true legacy won’t come from another campaign, but from one decisive political gesture — endorsing her to try to end Skalski’s brief incumbency. Lacroix-Velthuis’s possible loss or victory next year may hinge less on her policy boldness than on whether Thompson steps forward once more or steps aside.

Evan H. Potter

Source: An Uncertain Road to Council: Colette Lacroix-Velthuis and the Politics of Osgoode Ward (with authorization to re-publish from the author)