Rick Chiarelli
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Rick Chiarelli (c.1963)[1] is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is currently an Ottawa City Councillor, and the second cousin of former Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli. He represents the College ward covering part of Nepean.
Deeply active in Liberal Party politics in his youth, he was first elected to office at age 19 when he won a seat on the Carleton Separate School Board in 1982. At the time, he was the youngest elected official in the province. He ran for a seat on the council of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa Carleton in 1985, but lost.
In 1988, he was elected to the Nepean City Council for the Borden ward. His most notable act as a councillor was the introduction of a controversial new bylaw banning cat owners from allowing their pets to roam freely. He ran again for a spot on the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carelton council in 1991, but lost by only 0.38% of the vote to future Liberal Member of Parliament David Pratt. (There was some controversy when the Nepean city council refused to hold a recount.)
Chiarelli turned to the private sector, and he worked full time as a communications consultant, a job he had held while on Nepean council.
He was re-elected to the Nepean council in 1994. In 1998, he challenged sitting Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Alex Cullen for the Liberal nomination in Ottawa West-Nepean. He won the nomination following an extremely divisive battle. Cullen claimed he had been betrayed by his party, and chose to run against Chiarelli as an Ontario New Democratic Party candidate. Neither Cullen nor Chiarelli was elected, however -- in a surprising upset, Progressive Conservative Garry Guzzo defeated both.
Chiarelli remained on city council, and became one of the most outspoken opponents of amalgamating Nepean into Ottawa. He was a proponent of the tri-city scheme that would see Nepean merged with Ottawa's other western suburbs. He lost that battle, and ran for a seat on the new megacity council in 2000 against veteran Nepean politician Al Loney. Most observers expected close race, but Chiarelli won by a significant margin.
On city council he served as chair of the board of the Ottawa Public Library and of the long-term planning committee. Chiarelli also became the victim of a stalker who blamed him for "slowing the Internet."
Many speculated that Chiarelli would try again to enter the provincial legislature in the 2003 election, but instead he backed former Ottawa mayor Jim Watson in the Ottawa West-Nepean race. He was re-elected unopposed in the 2003 municipal election. On November 13, 2006, he was re-elected to Ottawa City Council, defeating challengers Brett Delmage and Laura Lee Doupe.
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| Preceded by Brian Mackey (Carleton Ward) |
City councillors from Baseline Ward 2000-2006 |
Succeeded by Ward abolished |
| Preceded by Ward created |
City councillors from College Ward 2006-present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
