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Jim Watson Height, Weight, Net Worth, Age, Birthday, Wikipedia, Who, Instagram, Biography

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Daniel Davis

Updated on February 14, 2026

Jim Watson is a Canadian legislator who has filled in as the 59th and current city hall leader of Ottawa starting around 2010. Beforehand, he filled in as an Ottawa city councilor from 1991 to 1997, and as chairman from 1997 to 2000. Watson thusly addressed the riding of Ottawa West — Nepean in the Regulative Gathering of Ontario from 2003 to 2010.

Watson served in the Bureau of Chief Dalton McGuinty in the arrangement of Shopper and Business Administrations (2003-2005), Wellbeing Advancement (2005-2007), and Metropolitan Undertakings and Lodging (2007-2010). He surrendered in January 2010 to run for city hall leader in the 2010 Ottawa civil political race. He was reappointed city hall leader in 2014 and in 2018. On Walk 20, 2021, Watson turned into the longest serving chairman in the city’s set of experiences, outperforming Stanley Lewis who held office from 1936 to 1948.

James Alexander Watson was born on July 30, 1961 (age 60 years) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is the second offspring of Frances Murdoch and Beverley “Bev” Watson. He experienced childhood in Lachute, however his family moved a couple of times during his young life for his dad’s work, taking him to Beaconsfield, Thornhill, and Sarnia. He graduated secondary school from Northern University in Sarnia.

NameJim Watson
Net Worth$5 million
OccupationMayor of Ottaw
Height1.85m
Age60 years

Watson later moved to Ottawa to go to Carleton College and graduated in 1983 with a Four year education in liberal arts in Mass Correspondences from the Staff of Public Undertakings. He previously engaged in the political circle during his second year of studies in 1982, when he filled in as the Leader of the Rideau Stream Home Affiliation (RRRA). Watson started his profession working in news-casting for a couple of neighborhood papers, and later entered the government public assistance, where he rose to the place of Overseer of Correspondences for the Speaker of the Place of Lodge.

Jim Watson originally entered public office in 1991 when he was chosen to pre-mixture Ottawa’s City Gathering as councilor for Capital Ward. He was in this manner reappointed to Committee in 1994. In 1992 Watson supported a roll-back of pay rates and working expenses at the city level. His most memorable direct activity against extreme city spending was his one-sided choice to give his yearly 2% compensation increment, totalling $700, to good cause.

Also, as a component of the re-appointment process, Jim Watson gave his severance pay of $5200 to four nearby foundations subsequent to moving from Territorial to City Board in 1994. During his second term as councilor, Watson decreased his own compensation by 13% from $51,000 to $45,000 while casting a ballot to lessen the city chairman’s office spending plan and pay. In 1996, he upheld Dalton McGuinty’s offered to lead the Ontario Liberal party, however at the time he actually viewed himself as a “Red Conservative”, going back from his college days when he was an individual from the Ever-evolving Preservationists.

Jim Watson looked for political race as City hall leader of Ottawa in 1997, winning 83 percent of the well known vote to turn into Ottawa’s most youthful ever chairman at age 36. During his term as chairman, Watson’s accentuation fixated on guaranteeing that the City take on practical financial administration arrangements which would empower generally working expenses to go down while decreasing spending plan shortfalls and the city’s obligation trouble. Related, Watson figured out how to freeze local charge rates for two successive years. He likewise supported an arrangement with two other councilors, Peter Hume and John O’Neil, to save the noteworthy Aberdeen Structure from being destroyed.

Watson surrendered as city hall leader on August 14, 2000, to become president and Chief of the Canadian The travel industry Commission. During his experience with the government crown partnership, Watson got extra subsidizing for the business following the 2001 emergency of the 9/11 assaults and the conditioning of the worldwide the travel industry. In 2003, Watson passed on open help to seek after a lifelong in media as host of CHRO-television’s The New RO @ Early afternoon. He was likewise a normal supporter of the Ottawa radio broadcast CFRA and the Ottawa Resident.

He has served on the board or as privileged seat of a few local area associations including the Riverside Emergency clinic, the Public Expressions Community, the Focal Canada Presentation Affiliation, the Christmas Trade of Ottawa and the Gathering for Youthful Canadians. He filled in as seat of the Unified Way’s 2002 mission, which raised a record $21 million.

In the 2003 commonplace political race, Jim Watson crushed Moderate Party of Ontario occupant Garry Guzzo to turn into the Individual from Commonplace Parliament (MPP) for the Ottawa West-Nepean riding and was named by Chief of Ontario Dalton McGuinty as Clergyman of Customer and Business Administrations on October 23, 2003. He turned into Ontario’s most memorable Pastor of Wellbeing Advancement on June 29, 2005.

Jim Watson worked close by the Ontario Common Police (OPP) to make a “Extortion Free Schedule” to assist with safeguarding buyers, especially seniors, from high tension deals strategies, which frequently lead to drive buys. In the spring of 2004, the Bureaucratic and Common states marked a joint help conveyance accord, making a “all in one resource” in numerous networks for common and government administrations.

This agreement later included regions, to give numerous taxpayer supported organizations in a single area, for instance Ottawa City Lobby. After acquiring a huge excess in birth endorsement applications, Watson made a move to smooth out the conveyance cycle for online candidates. After a bureau mix, Dalton McGuinty and Gerry Phillips executed an unconditional promise to people who don’t get a birth endorsement in something like 15 days of the web-based application, which Watson had started.

Watson started a review intended to assist Ontarians with stopping smoking. STOP – Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients – offered free nicotine substitution treatment to 14,000 smokers across the territory. On May 31, 2006, the Without smoke Ontario Act became effective, prohibiting all smoking in open regions in the territory, remembering for eateries, bars, gambling clubs, and so on. Watson was perceived for its execution.

In June of that year, Watson disclosed a $10-million Good dieting and Dynamic Living Arrangement. The arrangement focused on youth weight, which incorporated a pilot project in Northern schools, offering leafy foods to the understudies and a program that hoped to create and work on safe trekking and strolling to and from schools. In 2006, the Ontario government sent off a venture which gave monetary help to Ontario competitors hoping to perform at the public and global levels.

Journey For Gold is presently essential for the Ontario Competitor Help Program (OAAP), subsidized by the Public authority of Ontario, through the Service of The travel industry, Culture and Game. The Program gave direct monetary help to Ontario competitors through an “Ontario Card” assignment. The expectation of the OAAP is to give subsidizing to individual competitors in light of their exhibited obligation to elite execution sport, permitting them to seek after athletic greatness at the most significant levels of public and worldwide contest.

After the 2007 political race, Watson became Pastor of Metropolitan Issues and Lodging. During his residency as Sovereign’s Park’s true contact with Ontario’s regions, Watson had the option to execute considerable approaches to ease financial tension on urban communities. In February 2008, Watson presented the Rental Chance for Ontario Families (Rooftop) program that assists low-pay families with assets to pay lease north of a five-year time frame.

In October of that year, a strategy intended to help the transferring of local charge upheld programs from the financial plans of Ontario’s regions to that of the Common financial plan was carried out. Under this arrangement, the territory reclaimed $1.5 Billion worth of projects subsidized by Ontario’s regions, turning around past downloading of common obligations which happened during Mike Harris’ residency as Head.

The commonplace government took care of Ontario Works social help administrations, paramedic administrations, general wellbeing, travel, drug benefit programs, the Ontario Inability Backing System, court administrations, and local charge appraisal. Moreover, Watson marked the Government Common Lodging Understanding in 2008, the biggest lodging arrangement of its sort to date.

On January 12, 2010, Watson left the bureau to run for city hall leader of Ottawa in the 2010 Ottawa metropolitan political race. Watson won the political decision with practically half of the vote. After getting down to business, Watson froze his own compensation and cut his office financial plan by 10%. As city hall leader, he resolved to restrict charge increments to something like 2.5%, and did as such, getting the most minimal rates in various years.

Jim Watson likewise sanctioned a bunch of uprightness and straightforwardness measures, including recruiting a respectability chief, sending off a lobbyist library and expecting that chosen authorities’ office costs be posted on the web. He likewise froze local area amusement expenses for quite a long time, and diminished the size of the city’s labor force two times, whenever it first had been finished since combination.

Watson and the Ottawa City Chamber likewise put $340 million in framework reestablishment ventures, for example, streets, walkways, pathways and sewers and a record sum in cycling drives. Watson helped advance two significant city-building projects that had slowed down for various years: the renewal of Lansdowne Park and the presentation of light rail travel.

In October 2012, the city committee endorsed the last Lansdowne Park plan, a concurrence with the Ottawa Sports and Diversion Gathering that saw the current arena fundamentally revamped, expanded green space, and lodging and retail added t