‘A true civic giant:’ Former regional chair Andy Haydon, 1933-2024

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When Andy Haydon was chair of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton between 1978 and 1991, what we now know as the City of Ottawa was a collection of municipalities, from Ottawa itself to suburbs like Nepean and Gloucester and rural townships like Osgoode.

Haydon, who died Monday at the age of 91, was in charge of wrangling this disparate group as the city expanded. Municipalities were responsible for some services, such as libraries, but the regional government was responsible for others that knit the region together, such as transit, arterial roads, public health and sewage treatment.

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Haydon’s fingerprints remain all over the city. Andy Haydon Park was conceived by Haydon when he was reeve of Nepean and land on the Ottawa River waterfront on Carling Avenue was purchased to preserve it from developers. (“I try to get in, but the geese won’t let me,” Haydon quipped in a 2010 interview.)

The Nepean Sportsplex and the National Capital Equestrian Park were built during Haydon’s term as reeve of Nepean. As regional chair, he championed the rapid bus transit system that was admired around the world. Council chambers at city hall bear Haydon’s name.

But Haydon also lost several battles, such as his plan to create a second Greenbelt in the Ottawa area. In his time in politics, he was called a visionary, a bulldog and a bully.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe posted a tribute to Haydon on the social-media site X, writing that during a lifetime of public service Haydon had been “deeply passionate about our community, and his impact was enormous.”

Former Ottawa mayor Jim Watson called Haydon “a true civic giant who was reeve, mayor and regional chair, and always put the interests of our community first.”

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In a tweet, former Gloucester-South Nepean councillor Steve Desroches, who faced off against Haydon in a 2006 municipal ward election and won, said he always enjoyed the respectful and supportive relationship as “the kid” in the race.

“Andy helped to build the strong bones of our modern city,” Desroches said.

“He knew the business of politics,” said former mayor Bob Chiarelli, who was regional chair between 1997 and 2000, when regional council was eliminated during municipal amalgamation.

Haydon was proud of working with rural municipalities and the provincial government at Queen’s Park, Chiarelli said. Haydon’s rapid bus transit system was recognized all over North America as an efficient and friendly system. “He deserves recognition for that.”

Haydon was born in Toronto in 1933 — his grandfather was Pakenham-born Liberal senator Andrew Haydon — but grew up in the Ottawa area from the age of six, later getting a degree in chemical engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston, then taking a job in Cornwall before returning to Ottawa in 1961.

He married Mary Leishman, the first woman admitted into the department of commerce at the University of Ottawa, in 1960. Haydon won a council seat in Nepean, then still a township, in 1966, became reeve in 1969 and then mayor in 1978, when Nepean was incorporated as a city.

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Haydon was known for his “pay as you go” philosophy that made Nepean’s financial health the envy of other municipalities. He became regional chair in 1978, a time when the position was not elected, but rather chosen by other members of regional council who were themselves posted to the council by their municipalities.

In 1991, the chair became an elected position and Haydon declined to run. In a statement issued to explain his reasons, Haydon said Ottawa-Carleton “breeds politicians in the most cynical sense of the word, whose main claim to fame is that they criticize, vacillate and obfuscate.”

In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen that year, Haydon agreed that he wasn’t elected by the public to the regional chair, but noted it may have been harder to be selected by colleagues.

“As (Winston) Churchill said, the worst form of government is a democracy, except when you look at the others,” he said.

“One of the problems with it is that it is slow and one of the things that everyone should be doing is trying to speed up that process. How many private citizens have you heard who are frustrated with the slowness of getting a permit to put a building up when you need a one-foot variance or some ridiculous thing? I’ve often said that, if we were fighting a war, we’d be in trouble.”

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Haydon was lauded by fellow regional councillors at his last council meeting in November 1991, but they also recalled his impatient side. He had no love of doing things by the book, calling unscheduled news conferences and making unilateral decisions. He stormed out of one executive committee meeting after his plan for a regional ombudsman was rejected.

“Andy is a doer and he likes to get things accomplished,” said then-Nepean mayor Ben Franklin, who had known Haydon since his days as reeve. “He pushes hard and you can see the results around the region: a first-class sewage system, the Transitway and the regional headquarters.”

But Franklin also noted that Haydon had an impetuous side. “Sometimes he wanted to go faster than the democratic process allowed.”

In an interview with the Citizen’s editorial board a few weeks later, Haydon said he would not do things differently.

“I had to use shock treatment and other times work with the people — you have to get things done and, generally speaking, I’ve done it,” he said.

The unfortunate thing, Haydon noted, was that in government perception sometimes mattered more than reality.

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“That’s unfortunate because then you’re dealing with personality. Is he a nice guy? I wish newspapers would pay a little more attention to what you call the bottom line in your business. I think we have to look at what people do, rather than what they say they’re going to do.”

In an interview on Wednesday, former city and regional councillor Alex Cullen said Haydon paid attention to details, attending every regional committee meeting.

“It was his way of keeping his finger on the issues,” Cullen said. “He was not a glad-hander. He knew how to put together coalitions. Often it was Ottawa versus everyone else.”

Haydon took his last shot at public office was 2010, when he announced his candidacy for Ottawa mayor about six weeks before the municipal election on a platform that opposed light rail.

“Light rail will bankrupt the future, and I hope I never have to tell you, ‘I told you so,’” he said in one interview.

“Haydon was essentially the father of transit in Ottawa. People came from all over the world to see how it worked,” said Mohammed Adam, who covered regional council for 10 years as a Citizen reporter.

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The problem was that Haydon refused to see that light rail was the future for Ottawa. “His limitation was that after he had created this great system. He just couldn’t see the future,” Adam said.

Haydon finished fourth in the 2010 mayoral race, won by Watson, perhaps because he had overestimated his name recognition with voters. Election spending figures would later show that he paid for his campaign with a few thousand dollars of his own money.

Chiarelli said he saw Haydon several times at events within the past few months and they always struck up a conversation, with Haydon bringing up the subject of the rapid bus transit system. “He didn’t mince words about the LRT.”

Haydon’s first wife, Mary, died suddenly in 2003. The couple had four children, Andrew, Tracy, Kelly and Terry.

Haydon married Ben Franklin’s widow, Sherry in 2007 after he happened to her number in his address book. “I’m really blessed because imagine meeting two wonderful people,” Haydon said.

Visitation will be held on Nov. 3 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Central chapel of Hulse, Playfair & McGarry at 315 McLeod St.

A funeral service will be held Nov. 4 at 1 p.m at the same location, with a reception to follow.

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