Larry O'Brien got elected in 2006 on a platform of no tax increases. We all saw what happened to that: zero means a little more than zero. Mr. O'Brien rumbled his way into office by billing himself as the candidate of decisiveness, common sense and fiscal responsibility. Far from us be it to slander an elected official by accusing him of lying, so let us assume that he only fell about a lightyear short of his own expectations. For the last two years, we've seen nothing from the Mayor but frantic scrambling to put out fires, baffling declarations that boldly cross the line between candor and blurting out whatever goes through one's mind, and using every excuse under the sun to go back on campaign promises of no tax increases. Basically we're supposed to accept that it's not Mr. O'Brien's fault: it's the previous administration's reckless use of public funds, it's the snow that fell too much on Ottawa in the winter of '07, it's the general state of the economy. In early 2007, commenting on Terry Kilrea's allegations that he tried to buy him out of the mayoral race, Mr. O'Brien declared to the Ottawa Citizen: "I fell asleep on my boat in July drinking a beer and when I woke up I was the mayor of Ottawa. That's how fast it went." Let's do this City a favour and send Mr. O'Brien back to his boat. We, the people of Ottawa, are calling upon City Council to bring a vote of no-confidence against Mayor Larry O'Brien.

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