Alexander Mathias Munter
Munter speaking at his mayoral campaign HQ launch on September 22, 2006
Kanata City Councillor
In office 1991 – 1994
Preceded by	Bev Read
Succeeded by	Tom Flood
Constituency	Katimavik-Hazeldean Ward
Ottawa-Carleton Regional Councillor
In office 1994 – 2000
Preceded by	Merle Nicholds
Succeeded by	position abolished
Constituency	Kanata Ward
Ottawa City Councillor
In office 2001 – 2003
Preceded by	Position created
Succeeded by	Peggy Feltmate
Constituency	Kanata Ward
Born	April 29, 1968 Montreal
Political party	Ontario New Democratic Party
Spouse	single
Religion	Roman Catholic

Alexander Mathias Munter (born April 29, 1968) is a former politician and journalist in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. Merle Nicholds (born c 1951 served as the final mayor of Kanata Ontario from 1991 to 2000 Kanata North Ward (Ward 4 is a ward in the city of Ottawa, Canada. Peggy Feltmate is an Ottawa city councillor representing Kanata South Ward. Kanata North Ward (Ward 4 is a ward in the city of Ottawa, Canada. Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec The Ontario New Democratic Party, formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a Social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Ottawa (ˈɒtəwə or sometimes /ˈɒtəwɑː/ is the Capital of Canada and the country's fourth largest municipality. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page He is currently the executive director of Ottawa's Youth Services Bureau. An executive director is the senior manager or Executive officer of an Organization, company, or Corporation.

Munter's family emigrated from Germany to Montreal in 1966, two years prior to his birth. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec His family moved to the Ottawa region in 1977, and settled in the Katimavik-Hazeldean area west of the city. At age 14, Munter began publishing the Kanata Kourier from his basement as a monthly local paper for the suburban community of Kanata, Ontario. Kanata is a large Suburban area in the western part of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, it has a population of 90000 and is growing rapidly In four years, the paper had a staff of seven and a circulation of 10,000 in the town of 27,000. In recognition of his success in business, he received an award as "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" from then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1988. The Prime Minister of Canada ( French: Premier ministre du Canada) is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ (predominantly known as Brian Mulroney) (born March 20, 1939) was the eighteenth

Involvement in local politics

Munter became much involved in local politics in his role as editor. He was frequently at odds with Kanata Mayor Des Adam, whom he once controversially compared to Joseph Stalin. Des Adam (born 9 September 1945 in Perth Ontario) served as the second mayor of Kanata Ontario from 1985 to 1991 Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party ^[1]

In August 1989, he sold his paper to Runge Newspapers Inc. for over $300,000 ^[2] due to competition from the rival paper Kanata Standard, but stayed on as publisher. ^[3] In November 1989, Munter left the Kourier to focus on his ongoing studies in Political Science at the University of Ottawa. ^[4]

He became a political reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, but left to run as a candidate of the Ontario New Democratic Party in the 1990 provincial election, contesting the riding of Carleton. The Ottawa Citizen is an English -language daily newspaper owned by CanWest Global in Ottawa, Canada. The Ontario New Democratic Party, formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a Social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada The Ontario general election of 1990 was held on September 6, 1990, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario Munter placed third in this conservative riding, but received more votes than any previous NDP candidate in the area.

Munter briefly returned to the Citizen, then worked for the Spicer Commission on Canada's Future before re-entering politics to run for Kanata City Council against incumbent Bev Read. After winning the race, Munter quickly became a prominent member of the council. One of his most notable achievements was pushing through an initiative to install condom dispensers in some municipal buildings. He also chaired the Kanata Police Services Board. In 1993, he came out of the closet as the Ottawa area's first openly gay politician. ^{[5] [6]}

The following year, he ran for a seat on the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton representing all of Kanata. The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton was a regional government area and Census division in Ontario He easily won the seat against two other Kanata politicians. On Regional Council, he became one of the most outspoken left-wing members of council.

During his time in office, Kanata was in the midst of an economic boom centred on the high-tech industry. Munter's main concern was managing the area's rapid growth. He supported creating the amalgamated city of Ottawa, and was acclaimed to the new Ottawa City Council when it was created. The Ottawa City Council ( French: Conseil municipal d'Ottawa) is the governing body of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He also chaired the new city of Ottawa's health committee and, along with Medical Officer of Health Robert Cushman, led the battle to bring Ottawa's no-smoking by-law.

Alex Munter

Munter was courted to run provincially or to challenge for the mayoralty against Bob Chiarelli in 2003, but instead took a hiatus from electoral politics. Robert (Bob Chiarelli (born September 24, 1941 in Ottawa Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian politician He became a visiting professor of Urban Studies and Communications at the University of Ottawa and resumed writing for the Citizen. For the university in Ottawa Kansas see Ottawa University. The University of Ottawa or Université d'Ottawa in French The federal New Democratic Party (NDP) approached him to run in Ottawa Centre in the 2006 federal election to succeed Ed Broadbent but Munter declined. Principles policies and electoral achievement The NDP grew from populist, agrarian and democratic socialist roots For the Ottawa Centre provincial electoral district please see Ottawa Centre (provincial electoral district. The 2006 Canadian federal election (more formally the 39th General Election) was held on January 23 2006 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the John Edward "Ed" Broadbent PC, CC (born March 21, 1936 in Oshawa, Ontario) is a Canadian Social Munter was the co-ordinator for Canadians for Equal Marriage, a group that campaigned successfully in favour of legislation to enshrine same-sex marriage in Canada. Canadians for Equal Marriage is a Canadian Public interest group representing Egale Canada, PFLAG Canada the Canadian Federation of Students On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the approval of the Civil Marriage Act.

While still sometimes identified in the media as an NDP supporter, Munter is currently not a member of any political party. At the national level, he worked with Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin's team in the 2006 election as reported in the Ottawa Citizen "[Munter] acted as a middleman to supply The Canadian Press with a story damaging to Stephen Harper. The Liberal Party of Canada ( Parti libéral du Canada) colloquially known as the Grits (originally " Clear Grits " is a major Canadian political Paul Edgar Philippe Martin. PC, MP (also known as Paul Martin Jr The Canadian Press (often abbreviated as CP) is Canada 's national News agency established in 1917 as a vehicle to permit Canadian newspapers of the day WikipediaManual of Style (biographies#Honorific prefixes --> Stephen Joseph Harper PC It made the media aware of statements Harper made in an old speech to an American conservative group. The Martin campaign was behind the story and CP was unhappy that Munter didn't acknowledge the connection. " [1] Locally, the Ottawa Sun reported Munter campaigned "for candidates from all the major parties, including Tory [candidate] Royal Galipeau in Ottawa—Orléans, Liberal Isabel Metcalfe in Carleton—Mississippi Mills and NDPer Paul Dewar in Ottawa Centre. The Ottawa Sun is a daily Tabloid newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada ( Parti conservateur du Canada) colloquially known as the " Tories " is a conservative Royal N Galipeau (born January 5, 1947 in St-Isidore Ontario is a Member of Parliament for the Ottawa—Orléans federal constituency For the provincial electoral district see Ottawa—Orléans (provincial electoral district Ottawa—Orléans (formerly Gloucester—Carleton Isabel Metcalfe is a Canadian political advisor and was the Liberal Party of Canada candidate in the riding of Carleton—Mississippi Mills in the For the provincial electoral district see Carleton—Mississippi Mills (provincial electoral district. Paul W Dewar (born January 25, 1963 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian NDP Member of Parliament teacher and former elected representative For the Ottawa Centre provincial electoral district please see Ottawa Centre (provincial electoral district. " [2]

On February 13, 2006, Alex Munter announced[3] his candidacy[4] for mayor of Ottawa in the November 2006 municipal election. The 2006 Ottawa municipal election was held on November 13, 2006, in Ottawa, Canada, to elect the Mayor of Ottawa, Ottawa A 2005 poll by the Ottawa Sun had Munter as a front-runner, in a statistical tie with the incumbent Bob Chiarelli. Robert (Bob Chiarelli (born September 24, 1941 in Ottawa Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian politician Another public poll in April 2006 had Munter as the front runner with a significant lead over Chiarelli. Most polls made public in the early stages of the campaign showed Munter in first place, often by a small margin. A poll conducted between October 13 and 18 by UniMarketing and sponsored by Radio-Canada and Le Droit, had Munter ahead by 12 percentage points at 44% of decided voters. Le Droit (established on March 27, 1913) is a Canadian daily newspaper published in Ottawa, Canada and is operated Larry O'Brien was in second place with 32% and Chiarelli third (24%). Larry O'Brien (born July 19, 1949 in Ottawa) is the current mayor of Ottawa Canada as well as a current director of Calian Technologies and [5]

On election night, Munter finished second with 36. 25%, behind O'Brien (47%) but ahead of Chiarelli (15. 6%). [6]

2006 Mayoral campaign platform

A map showing the concentration of Munter's vote. He won the downtown and his home region of Kanata while doing poorly in the rural areas

Munter set out several key priorities in his mayor campaign: public safety, fiscal responsibility, local economy and public transit. Public security Public safety involves the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the Safety of the general public from significant Danger From a Keynesian point of view a balanced Budget in the Public sector is achieved when the government has enough fiscal discipline to be able to equate He promised to limit tax hikes to the inflation rate. In Economics, the inflation rate is a measure of Inflation, the rate of increase of a Price index (for example a Consumer price index) While he was a city councillor, he claimed he helped to bring in ten consecutive balanced budgets without any tax increases. From a Keynesian point of view a balanced Budget in the Public sector is achieved when the government has enough fiscal discipline to be able to equate His opponents claimed that the budget was balanced despite his votes to increase spending.

He said he planned to improve public transit in the city of Ottawa, to review the O-Train project and to fix possible irregularities regarding the contract with Siemens. The O-Train was introduced in 2001 as a pilot project for light-rail service in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, which had long depended exclusively Munter said that the project could have been significantly better than the current proposal, and that the costs could have been reduced. He did his own proposal of the north-south line by proposing the removal of the Barrhaven and downtown sections. Barrhaven is a rapidly growing Suburban neighbourhood located in the southwest corner of the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, about 20 km (12 Funding released would have redirected for the development of a future east-west line. ^[7]

He criticized outgoing mayor Bob Chiarelli on several occasions for proceeding too quickly on the project, without proper information and consultation. Robert (Bob Chiarelli (born September 24, 1941 in Ottawa Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian politician He also criticized the Mayor for allegedly providing incorrect information about the project, including saying that there will be additional costs because of an announcement made by John Baird, President of the Treasury Board, that the federal government's $200 million contribution would be delayed until after the November election. John Russell Baird, PC, MP (born May 26 1969 is a Canadian politician ^[8]. After Larry O'Brien's election as the new mayor, the expansion project was completely cancelled by City Council on December 14, 2006.

He promised to improve safety on the city streets with an increase of the number of police officers. Police are agents or agencies usually of the executive, empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimatized use of force He supported, along with mayors from other cities, increased gun control and stricter measures for drug dealing. Gun politics is a set of legal issues surrounding the ownership use and regulation of firearms as well as safety issues related to firearms both through their direct use and through The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global Black market consisting of the cultivation manufacture distribution and sale of illegal Drugs He also proposed to give an easier access to leisure activities for kids with lower recreational fees. Leisure or free time, is a period of Time spent out of work and essential domestic Activity. In regards to the environment, he wanted the city of Ottawa to be environmentally-friendly. See also Nature The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a terminology that is comprised of all living and In addition of improvements for the public transit system, he also promised to close two landfill sites situated on Carp and Navan Roads in which there were expansion requests by private firms despite opposition by citizens. For other uses see Water treatment and Land reclamation. A landfill, also known as a dump (and historically as

Post-election

In 2007, Munter was appointed executive director of Ottawa's Youth Services Bureau. [7]

References

External links

• Alex Munter's Mayoralty Campaign website