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Who won the final Ottawa mayoral debate?

Jeff Leiper, Alex Lawson, Neil Saravanamuttoo and Mark Sutcliffe faced off one last time before Ottawa votes. Here's what our pundits took away.

The four leading candidates for Ottawa mayor squared off in their final debate on Oct. 21 before voters head to the polls. Here’s what our analysts Bruce Deachman, Brigitte Pellerin, Karl Salgo and Olivia Belovich thought of their performance. Election Day is Oct. 26.

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Bruce Deachman: Going into the debate, victory meant different things to different candidates. Incumbent and front-runner Mark Sutcliffe had the relatively straightforward task of not committing any unforced errors and giving voters no reason to reconsider their support for him.

The bar was much higher for his challengers. While Lawson, Leiper and Saravanamuttoo landed a few jabs against Sutcliffe’s record, there was no knockout blow, or anything even close. Sutcliffe was also largely successful in attacking Leiper — his closest challenger — for not having as developed a platform or even a clearly identified property-tax increase. Leiper did get in a good jab when, referring to Sutcliffe’s refusal to use strong-mayor powers, he........

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