Ariel Troster
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arieltroster.com
Ariel Troster
@arieltroster.com
City Councillor for #SomersetWard in Ottawa. Queer Jew. A better city is possible. Let’s build it together. 🏳️‍🌈
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The latest issue of the Somerset Ward newsletter is out, with my hot takes on the draft city budget, stats showing the incredible success of ANCHOR, a window into our city’s food security crisis, and more.

Read and sign up here: www.arieltroster.com/swm_61
To anyone who experienced the utter traffic chaos yesterday due to a big event at McNabb Park: I was not informed about this event in advance. It seems that the venue was booked last minute and the organizers misrepresented how many people they were expecting.
November 24, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Great seeing so many partners from local faith communities and housing organizations at the Multifaith Housing Initiative’s National Housing Day celebration today.

Grateful to all of the donors and volunteers who work to ensure that affordable housing gets built in our city.
November 23, 2025 at 10:39 PM
For some reason, I was a theatre kid who never saw Wicked on stage, so the ending of Wicked: For Good had me gasping in surprise.

Absolute movie magic. (In addition to being a very relevant treatise on how power corrupts).

Go see it!
November 23, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Ariel Troster
Bill 60 vote on Monday. Send your letter via Horizon Ottawa website today!
#ottawa #onpoli#BikeTooter

www.horizonottawa.ca/back_off_ford
Tell Ford to Back Off Our Bike and Bus Lanes!
www.horizonottawa.ca
November 22, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Thank you to Carlos Zapata for inviting me to @uottawa.ca today, to check out projects that students are working on to combat youth homelessness in Ottawa.

They are spending all weekend working in “sprints,” supported by mentors and people with lived experience.
November 22, 2025 at 7:35 PM
The latest issue of the Somerset Ward newsletter is out, with my hot takes on the draft city budget, stats showing the incredible success of ANCHOR, a window into our city’s food security crisis, and more.

Read and sign up here: www.arieltroster.com/swm_61
November 22, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Had a blast at the @acorncanada.bsky.social trivia fundraiser, with @jleiper.bsky.social and @stephanieplante.bsky.social insight.

ACORN is a tenant-led union of low + middle income residents who fight for rent control, better landlord-tenant laws and fair banking fees, among many other things.
November 22, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Thanks to the Council on Aging for inviting me to Drag Me to Lunch at the Montgomery Legion on Kent.

Such a great opportunity to promote intergenerational understanding and allyship.
November 21, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Ariel Troster
SAVE THE DATE

📅 December 2nd 6:30-8:30pm

👇Join the Vision Zero Ottawa project!

schoolstreetsottawa.ca/day-zero-of-...
November 21, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Started the morning bright and early with Habitat for Humanity’s National Housing Week breakfast. Awesome to see so many council colleagues there, along with many of our city’s greatest housing leaders. Habitat’s affordable home ownership model is a key solution to the housing crisis.
November 20, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Ariel Troster
Season 6 of Canada’s Drag Race begins tonight and Ottawa is proudly represented! Saltina Shaker brings incredible creativity from right here in our city. Karamilk also has deep roots in our drag community and first rose to prominence on an Ottawa stage. Ottawa is cheering you on very step of the way
November 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Ariel Troster
Today, November 20, is a day to remember the lives lost to transphobia and reflect on the continued work needed to build a safer and more inclusive community, here in #OttCity and beyond, free from gender-based violence and discrimination.

We remember. We reflect. We commit to change.
November 20, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Great to see friends from Capital Pride, the Little Italy BIA, the Ottawa Fringe Festival and the Downtown BIA (among many others) at the Ottawa Festivals Network summit at City Hall today!
November 19, 2025 at 8:39 PM
The PWHL was very clear that they would not play in a smaller arena. Some of us tried to get council to take them seriously when we voted on Lansdowne 2.0. If this bad deal costs us our women’s hockey team, it will be unforgivable.

www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...
‘We will not play at Lansdowne 2.0’: PWHL says all other options on table for Ottawa Charge
The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) says all options are on the table to keep the Ottawa Charge in the capital, but the team won’t be playing at the smaller hockey arena at Lansdowne once it...
www.ctvnews.ca
November 19, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Ariel Troster
This is urgent and I need your help.

Doug Ford is rushing Bill 33 and Bill 60 through — they're just one vote away from becoming law.

Bill 33 silences parents and cuts student services. Bill 60 makes it easier for landlords to evict tenants and raise rents, and opens the door to privatizing water.
November 18, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Ariel Troster
The 2026 draft Ottawa budget announces further delays to the Carling bus lane project, estimating the completion time for a bus lane project at 2035. This project was started in 2016 with designs released in 2017, which would make this be a 19 year long project just to install interim bus lanes.
November 13, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Another morning of trying to convince my teen that it is unfashionable to be cold and that she should wear a proper coat.

Was I successful? No.

Will I be successful tomorrow? Also no.
November 18, 2025 at 1:22 PM
The first year of ANCHOR has been incredibly successful, with more than 4,000 calls answered and 92% requiring no police intervention. Thanks to Kristy Cameron for having me on CFRA today to talk about why de-tasking of police is working and how we need to scale up ANCHOR city-wide.
November 17, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Ariel Troster
Beginning January 1, 2026, the City of Ottawa will no longer be responsible for collecting your blue and black bin.
Under regulations from the Government of Ontario, recycling is going provincial.
Learn more at: Ottawa.ca/IPR.
Continue to put out your bins as normal.
Recycling | City of Ottawa
The new province-wide program means producers are now responsible for collecting and recycling materials across Ontario. The City of Ottawa will continue to handle garbage and organics collection.
Ottawa.ca
November 17, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Lovely to drop by St. Peter & St. Paul’s Anglican Church on Metcalfe to congratulate them on their 140th anniversary. I am so grateful to faith communities like this one that serve meals and provide sanctuary for some of the most vulnerable people in our community.
November 16, 2025 at 8:31 PM
One year, 4,464 calls, 92% required no police intervention. The Alternative Neighbourhood Crisis Response (ANCHOR) in Centretown is sending the right people to help in cases of mental health or substance use crises. It represents the de-tasking of police and it works.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Centretown crisis response team handled thousands of calls in its 1st year, report shows | CBC News
Launched in August 2024, the Alternative Neighbourhood Crisis Response (ANCHOR) team responded to 4,464 calls in its first year, according to numbers in a new city report. The pilot program aims to pr...
www.cbc.ca
November 16, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I officially took my seat three years ago! We are just getting started …
Three years ago, I was elected to represent Somerset Ward at City Hall, the greatest honour of my life.

I am proud of the work we have been able to do together and will keep on fighting for a better city and for more resources to improve our downtown communities.
November 16, 2025 at 3:04 AM
There is a new Netflix movie with Claire Danes and I am amazed that they let her have a normal face. She looks like an actual woman in her late 40s and it’s sad that this is so refreshing.
November 16, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Margo MacDonald’s incredible Elephant Girls is on for one more day at @gctclive.bsky.social. Go see it! A one-person show featuring a band of queer thieves in England after WW1. Based on a true story.
November 15, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Great to drop by The Good Companions Senior Centre’s Queer Christmas Craft Sale today. It’s on till 2 today and there are lots of fabulous finds. Check it out at 670 Albert Street!
November 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM