Alex Munter
Alex Munter (born April 27, 1968) is a politician in Ottawa, Canada's capital city.
Munter's family emigrated from Germany to Montreal in 1966, two years prior to his birth. His family moved to the Ottawa region in 1977, and settled in the Katimavik-Hazeldean area west of the city. At age 14, Munter began publishing the Kanata Kourier from his basement as a monthly local paper for the suburban community of Kanata, Ontario. In four years, the paper had a staff of seven and a circulation of 10,000 in the town of 27,000. In recognition of his success in business, he received an award as "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" from then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1988.
Munter became much involved in local politics in his role as editor. He was frequently at odds with Mayor Des Adam, whom he once controversially compared to Josef Stalin.
Munter attended Ashbury College for high school, and then went to the University of Ottawa to study political science. In 1989, he sold his paper to Runge Newspapers Inc. for several hundred thousand dollars to make time for his studies. He became a political reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, but left to run as a candidate of the Ontario New Democratic Party in the 1990 provincial election, contesting the riding of Carleton. Munter placed third in this conservative riding, but received more votes than any previous NDP candidate in the area.
Munter briefly returned to the Citizen, then worked for the Spicer Commission on Canada's Future before re-entering politics to run for Kanata City Council against incumbent Bev Read. After winning the race, Munter quickly became a prominent member of the council. One of his most notable achievements was pushing through an initiative to install condom dispensers in some municipal buildings. He also chaired the Kanata Police Services Board. In 1993, he came out of the closet as the Ottawa area's first openly gay politician.
The following year, he ran for a seat on the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton representing all of Kanata. He easily won the seat against two other Kanata politicians. On Regional Council, he became one of the most outspoken and notable left-wing members of council.
During his time in office, Kanata was in the midst of an economic boom centred on the high-tech industry. Munter's main concern was managing the area's rapid growth. He supported creating the amalgamated city of Ottawa, and was acclaimed to the new Ottawa City Council when it was created. He also chaired the new city of Ottawa's health committee and, along with Medical Officer of Health Robert Cushman, led the battle to bring Ottawa's no-smoking by-law.
Munter was courted to run provincially or to challenge for the mayoralty against Bob Chiarelli in 2003, but instead took a hiatus from electoral politics. He became a visiting professor of Urban Studies and Communications at the University of Ottawa and resumed writing for the Citizen. The federal New Democratic Party (NDP) approached him to run in Ottawa Centre in the 2006 federal election to succeed Ed Broadbent but Munter declined. Munter was the co-ordinator for Canadians for Equal Marriage, a group that campaigned successfully in favour of legislation to enshrine same-sex marriage in Canada.
While still sometimes identified in the media as an NDP supporter, Munter is currently not a member of any political party. At the national level, he worked with Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin's team in the 2006 election as reported in the Ottawa Citizen "[Munter] acted as a middleman to supply The Canadian Press with a story damaging to Stephen Harper. It made the media aware of statements Harper made in an old speech to an American conservative group. The Martin campaign was behind the story and CP was unhappy that Munter didn't acknowledge the connection." [1] Locally, the Ottawa Sun reported Munter campaigned "for candidates from all the major parties, including Tory [candidate] Royal Galipeau in Ottawa—Orléans, Liberal Isabel Metcalfe in Carleton—Mississippi Mills and NDPer Paul Dewar in Ottawa Centre." [2]
On February 13 2006 Alex Munter announced[3] his candidacy[4] for mayor of Ottawa in the November 2006 municipal election. A 2005 poll by the Ottawa Sun had Munter as a front-runner, in a statistical tie with the incumbent Bob Chiarelli. A public poll in April 2006 had Munter as the clear front runner with a significant lead over Chiarelli.