My wife and I have lived in downtown Ottawa for nearly 20 years. When we moved to Ottawa we chose the downtown core because we like an active lifestyle with amenities close by. Today, downtown Ottawa is rotting in no small part because of my progressive city councillor, Ariel Troster. She has welcomed a permissive attitude toward open air drug consumption, vagrancy, and general lawlessness. As I found out this week, she will not tolerate respectful disagreement on her social media accounts, blocking concerned citizens for politely challenging policy.
I have never met Ariel, but I have had interactions with her, including as a board member of my condo corporation. My immediate sense is a self-righteous know-it-all who feels that any disagreement with her is a symptom of your own moral failings. I am not surprised – activists who become politicians keep up a crusade-mindset instead of trying to reach reasonable compromises with diverse constituents. Activists want to engineer society; they are not interested in building a more operational – more tolerant city that works for everyone.
I don’t use social media much. I have an X and Bluesky account that I use mostly to reply to ideas from people I follow. I don’t hide behind an alias, and I don’t call people names on social media. On several occasions I have challenged Ariel on her policies that she advocates on Bluesky. This week Ariel proposed eliminating right turns on red lights in downtown Ottawa because of some recent incidents. She leaps on recency bias with her activist attitude, writing an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen, calling for the city to change its downtown traffic laws. Unlike Ariel, I live in the core and I have a unique perspective on this issue because my wife and I don’t own a car and haven’t for over 20 years. Our bicycles are our sole means of transportation, year round. Responding to her Bluesky post, I pointed out that banning right on red will inconvenience drivers and that cyclists like myself have to reach compromises with motorists. A War-on-Cars attitude helps no one. You can see my post below.
Of course I expected the usual hate from Ariel’s followers – some of them responded to positively by Ariel, one of which had a user name that suggests cutting people’s heads off.
I then commented on Ariel’s post about her desire to make transit free for children along with reduced fares across the board. I pointed out that her idea is economically inefficient – the net beneficiary of such a policy are well-off civil servants who commute. If we want to help poor people, that’s fine, but do it without distorting prices or giving money to people who can definitely afford to pay. You can see my post below.
For these comments Ariel has blocked me on Bluesky, posting a message saying “This man needs new hobbies.” It appears that Ariel does not believe that the citizens of Ottawa should engage with their councillors, take an interest in their community, or challenge policy respectfully. She believes that her Bluesky account is not for engaging with the public, but only for pushing her brand of propaganda. Of course I have no time for those who use social media to threaten, abuse, or personally insult people, but that is not what is going on here as you can see from the screenshots of my Bluesky posts. I don’t expect Ariel to necessarily respond to my replies, though it would be nice if she did on occasion, but to block all content for disagreeing is unbecoming of a politician who claims to respect democracy.
The people of Ottawa, and Somerset Ward in particular, should have no illusions about Ariel Troster. Ariel is an activist only interested in championing causes for an uncompromising, militant, and aggressive minority of voters with little regard for people who have different priorities.
Activists make terrible politicians. Somerset Ward is case in point. Let’s remember that come October 2026.