By Rose Simpson
A perfect day for Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe begins when he laces up his Mizuno running shoes and heads for the Ottawa River or Rideau Canal for a 10 kilometre run.
“It would be a beautiful morning, five to ten degrees, just the way I like it,” says the former journalist and businessman. “It’s cool, the sun is rising, and the air is crisp. On a day like that, I feel all kinds of energy and optimism for the future.”
Mark relies on that energy boost to fuel busy days as he sprints from council meetings to business openings to community events often seven days a week. It’s not easy being mayor of Canada’s capital and fourth largest city but Mark loves every minute of it from fielding calls from concerned taxpayers to negotiating deals with the federal and provincial governments.
And those negotiations are paying off. In the past year alone, he secured a $400-million federal agreement to build 3,000 affordable homes and reached a landmark half a billion dollar deal with the Province with a commitment to upload the LRT, saving Ottawa taxpayers about $85 million every year.
“It’s a busy job and it’s a responsibility you have 24/7. You’re always thinking about it, and you have reading to do, you have emails, you have phone calls, you have events. There’s always something going on and there’s always something you’re thinking about.”
No doubt about it, being mayor has changed his life. But one thing hasn’t changed: his commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Mark keeps a mailman’s schedule, running five days a week regardless of the weather. Recently, he added in two workout sessions with a personal trainer who puts him through his paces lifting weights and doing other strength training.
“I finally listened to all the advice that when you’re older, you have to do resistance training and building up more than just the leg muscles,” he says. “Running is great for cardio but it’s not everything.”
At 57 years old, Mark acknowledges that he’s lucky that he can also still run a few marathons each year. Unlike many older long distant runners, he hasn’t had to divide his time between his passion and visits to sports medicine clinics. His knees are still in great working order so he rarely misses a morning run.
“If you do it long enough, and I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, it becomes a routine. It’s like eating breakfast. If you decide to do it every day, then you can’t imagine skipping a day.”
Mark wasn’t always a committed athlete. He was small for his age and was often the last guy picked on team sports so he channelled his efforts into nerdy, brainy pursuits and trips downtown with his school buddies from Saint Pius X for a McDonald’s lunch and old fashioned hang.
Instead of hitting the field, he became an avid sports fan. At just 19, Mark started his first business called SportsCall, a phone line that provided updated sports scores to callers (before the Internet), He used a provincial skills development program to borrow $3,000 to launch the service, selling advertising to local businesses. He took that love of sports into a career in media, even working as the announcer at Ottawa Lynx games.
Mark’s passion for running began in his 30s as a way of keeping fit, but it soon turned into an obsession. He has completed more than 20 marathons, including qualifying for and running in the Boston Marathon in 2015 and 2018
Mark is not just a runner; he’s an enthusiastic booster of the sport.
For many years, he wrote a column about running for the Ottawa Citizen, then founded iRun, a popular running magazine and website. He is the author of four books including Long Road to Boston and Why I Run. He also channelled his passion into fundraising contributing more than $250,000 to various charities. Since becoming mayor, he’s raised funds for Salus Ottawa and Harmony House, and created a fund to support Danushka Wickramasinghe, the sole survivor of the March 2024 rampage in Barrhaven that killed his wife and four young children.
He did all of this while building an incredible career as a journalist, entrepreneur, community activist, and now Mayor of Ottawa.
“People ask me how I do it,” he laughs. “The job is tremendously busy, and I have a family. But I’m not a Member of Parliament. My job is to be in Ottawa, so I can be home at night, or take the kids to their practices. Having a family is a healthy distraction. When I walk through the door, I stop being mayor and I’m just dad.”
Mark Sutcliffe is a rare bird in Ottawa politics. Born to immigrant parents, he comes from a mixed race background with an English father and Chinese mother born in Shanghai. As mayor, he is the first in modern memory who is serving while raising a young family. He and Ginny, his wife of 17 years, are parents to Erica, 26, and two teenagers, Jack, 16, and Kate 14 who are both competitive athletes.
He works hard but steadfastly remains committed to keeping his life in balance and prioritizing his family and his personal health.
“There’s a lot of stuff to do with family, like getting somebody to practice, or my son has a baseball game, or I’m dropping a kid at a friend’s house. And there’s homework. It helps a lot that I’m able to set work aside for a while and focus on just being a Dad.
“Being mayor isn’t my identity. It’s a thing that I’m doing for a fixed period of time, and then I’ll move on. My focus is on making this a better city, a better community for my kids and grand kids.”
Lucky Man
Until three years ago, Mark had never considered running for public office. He was too busy building a variety of businesses including founding the Ottawa Business Journal, hosting local radio shows, and volunteering in the community he loves. His resume includes serving on the boards of the United Way Ottawa, the Ottawa Board of Trade, OrKidstra, the Great Canadian Theatre Company, the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation and Run Ottawa, among many other endeavours. In 2016, his contributions to the City of Ottawa were recognized when he was inducted into the Order of Ottawa and named the United Way’s Ambassador of the Year.
He decided to jump into municipal politics after he became increasingly concerned about the chaos and infighting at city hall, and what he considered bad decision-making on the part of local politicians.
“When I decided to run three years ago, things were not going in the right direction in Ottawa. We had the light rail fiasco, the convoy, the lack of confidence in the police. There was toxicity on city council, with everybody fighting one another. I felt the need to contribute and not just sit on the sidelines and complain.”
He believes Ottawa is at an important juncture as it evolves from a relatively small city with a relatively low crime rate and good transportation into a bigger entity.
“If we’re not careful we are going to have some of the bigger city problems; it will become more expensive to live here, and it will be harder to get around. We have a unique opportunity to maintain the small city feel and dynamic while also having the benefits of being a bigger city. I want the city to have great transportation, great entertainment, lifestyle options, sports. If we can set ourselves up for that, during the time I’ve been mayor, I’ll be proud of that.”
Lucky Man
Mark’s commitment to public service comes from his recognition that he has been given a charmed life, and has a duty to give back to his community and help those who are less fortunate.
“I think I’m incredibly lucky,” he says. “I am healthy, I was born into a loving family in a prosperous city and country. I’m aware of my good fortune. I work hard, I bring certain skills and talents to life and work but I feel humility and a gratitude that comes with that. Everybody should be mindful of the role that luck plays in their lives.”
He plans to run for a second term to finish the work he’s started, which includes a commitment to attract more family doctors to the city, end youth homelessness by the year 2030 and find ways to build more affordable housing in the community.
“My focus now is to continue the work I’ve been doing this term,” he says, adding he has no intention of becoming a career politician. “I see this as an opportunity to serve the city that I love. I hope to set Ottawa on the right course for the future.”
