Glenn Brooks

Glenn Brooks is an Ottawa City Councilor representing the rural Rideau-Goulbourn Ward. He grew up on a dairy farm outside of Oshawa and became a science teacher and school principal, he and is a wife Gail also operated a small beef cattle farm. Brooks is an expert at judo and once tried out for the Canadian Olympic team.

A long-time local politician he was first elected to the Rideau Township council in 1977. A teacher by profession he ran for mayor of the township in 1978 but lost to David Bartlett. Brooks remained a councillor and defeated Bartlett in a 1985 rematch. Among the most controversial issues Brooks dealt with was a ban on exotic pets and a motion to make the Township unilingually English. In 1990 Brooks was defeated by local businessman James Stewart, who Brooks had defeated in his 1988 reelection. Brooks was nominated as the Reform Party candidate for the riding of Nepean—Carleton, but in March 1997 he resigned due to conflicts with the riding association before the election. Later that year he defeated Stewart to regain the mayoralty.

Brooks was a strong opponent of the amalgamation of Rideau Township into the city of Ottawa, but once the new city was created he chose to run for the role of Rideau's representative to the city. The race again pitted Brooks against Stewart. Brooks won by a substantial margin and was reelected by approximately the same margin in the 2003 Ottawa election against Paul Paton. In a famous exchange over the controversial 2004 budget mayor Bob Chiarelli told Brooks to "fuck off." After the meeting Brooks grabbed Chiarelli's shoulder and told him that "If you ever tell me to fuck off again, I'll take you to task." They later apologized and resolved their differences.

External links

* [http://www.glennbrooks.ca/ Official site]
* [http://ottawa.ca/city_hall/mayor_council/councillors/g_brooks_en.html City biography]