I know we're wading into Lavender room territory, but Sutcliffe is very much in the camp of "cycling as recreation" (he tends to view it more akin to his marathon prep) instead of "cycling as transport" (and therefore we need infrastructure to support this.
The first one works really well if you're a mayor trying to bring endurance events to your city. I have no doubt he's going to not work overtime to make this a success as far as his powers and role as mayor is concerned. A big endurance event like this is right in his wheelhouse. I'll get my biases out of the way first - Mark Suttcliffe is a long time friend.
He's also one of US - a dedicated, age-group Endurance Sports Athlete, who runs most days, has qualified for Boston in the past (and wrote a great book about his experience)
I'll fully admit that his stance on cycling in Ottawa was confusing to me . . . I thought he would have been a bolder, stauncher advocate for cycling in Ottawa. But having run locally in my own area, for Political Office (Town Council in Aurora, ON), I saw out on the Campaign Trail that average voters, in our mostly car-dependant suburban areas, could care less, about Bike Lanes, Road Safety, and any sort of advocacy in that direction - for them it's all cars, cars cars and more cars. It's a BLACK MARK against you with most voters. So you are in a tricky situation as a candidate and then if you get Elected.
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog