Larry O'Brien (Canadian politician)

Lawrence Robert O'Brien (born July 19, 1949) is a Canadian businessman and politician.

O'Brien attended Elmdale Public School and Fisher Park High School, and graduated from Merivale High School in 1968.

He studied at Algonquin College and graduated with a diploma in Technology in 1972.

After graduating, O'Brien worked in the high technology sector, where he met Terry Matthews and Michael Cowpland.

He then joined Microsystems International Ltd. In 1975 he worked for the Communications Research Centre and Motorola Communications.

O'Brien then launched his first company, Insta-Call Ltd., which went bankrupt in 1979.

From then to 1982, he was the general manager of reliability-testing firm Reltek Inc. in Kanata, subsequently leaving to open Calian Technologies Ltd., a staffing (outsourcing) and engineering service provider.

O'Brien married Debbie Green in 1983.

They had two sons, Michael and Matthew.

In 1995, O'Brien and Green divorced.

O'Brien served as the 58th mayor of Ottawa from 2006 until 2010.

O'Brien was the founder and former Chair and CEO of Calian Technologies Ltd.

O'Brien left Calian as CEO and chairman in 2006 when he was elected mayor of Ottawa.

In July 2006, O'Brien announced he would be running for the office of mayor of Ottawa in the 2006 municipal election, calling himself a centrist candidate.

One of the central points of his platform was a review of Ottawa's O-Train light rail expansion plans, with a plan to delay or even eliminate the full contract.

He was critical of what he saw as secrecy of some of the elements of the project, as well as the effects the construction would have in areas such as the Albert and Slater street corridors, and the removal of some of the existing express bus services.

In September 2006, O'Brien wrote a letter to the federal President of the Treasury Board, John Baird, requesting a formal review of the project.

Baird then withheld the $200 million federal funding for the expansion plans until after the 2006 election in November.

During a candidates' debate on September 13, O'Brien stated that one solution to the problem of homeless youth sleeping under a bridge was to replace them with a tourist kiosk.

He also said homelessness could be solved through a "business-like look."

These statements led to criticism from other candidates for mayor, including Alex Munter and Jane Scharf.

O'Brien promised to freeze municipal taxes over the next four years and make the city's finances more fiscally responsible.

However, it was expected that the budget would rise close to $95 million over the next year, sparking debate as to which public services would experience a rise in user-fees and which services would be cancelled.

O'Brien also promised tougher policy on safety issues such as violent crime and drug issues, and promised to increase the number of police officers.

O'Brien's other campaign commitments on law and order included his promise to eliminate the city's free crack pipe program.

He also proposed introducing a by-law preventing people from sleeping in public places based on the Montreal by-law introduced in September 2006.

O'Brien said that he was in favour of the planned expansion of the Ottawa Congress Centre, which was halted by the City of Ottawa and the Ontario Government.

The Congress Centre project was fully funded in the first three months of his term as Mayor.

He proposed making Ottawa a Green Leader in waste-to-energy production by generating 5% of the city's electricity from waste and diverting 100% of the city's non-recycled waste from landfills; for example, Carp Road landfill site, which Waste Management had planned to double in size, would be replaced by three waste-to-energy facilities.

Before officially entering the mayoral race, O'Brien was polling in third place with little support.

However, when Terry Kilrea dropped out of the race in order to pursue a council spot, most of Kilrea's supporters began to support O'Brien.

He climbed to second place in the polls, ahead of incumbent Bob Chiarelli, then moved to first place ahead of challenger Alex Munter in an Ottawa Citizen poll a few days before the election.

In the municipal election on November 13, 2006, O'Brien won 47% of the vote and became mayor-elect of Ottawa with a margin of 30,000 votes ahead of Munter.

He subsequently stepped down as CEO and chairman of Calian while remaining a director for the company.

During the week of December 18, the City of Ottawa reported that it could face a 105-million dollar shortfall on the 2007 budget, equivalent to an 11% tax increase.

During the Ottawa mayoral campaign, O'Brien had promised a no-tax hike policy; however, due to a larger shortfall than anticipated, he said that he could not guarantee no tax increases.

During the 2007 budget discussions from January 8 to 12, 2007, O'Brien voted against a passed motion that would have required city staff to implement two draft budgets, including one with a tax freeze and another with a tax increase within the rate of inflation.

In 2008, O'Brien married real estate agent Colleen McBride.

He ran for re-election in the Ottawa mayoral election in 2010 but was defeated by then former mayor Jim Watson.

He remained a director of the firm until stepping down in 2012.