page_title: Jim Watson (Canadian politician)
section_title: Provincial politics
hierarchical_section_title: Jim Watson (Canadian politician) / Provincial politics
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped photo of "Jim Watson, MPP and former City of Ottawa Mayor speaking at the Ottawa Folk Festival."
context_page_description: James Alexander Watson is the current mayor of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He was a former Ottawa city councillor and mayor, and subsequently represented the riding of Ottawa West—Nepean in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2010. He served in the Cabinet of Premier Dalton McGuinty in the portfolios of Consumer and Business Services, Health Promotion, and Municipal Affairs and Housing. He resigned in January 2010 to successfully run for mayor in the 2010 Ottawa municipal election. He was subsequently re-elected mayor on October 27, 2014 and on October 22, 2018.
  On August 17, 2019, in an op-ed to the Ottawa Citizen, Watson announced that he was coming out of the closet, becoming Ottawa's first openly gay mayor.
context_section_description: In the 2003 provincial election, Watson defeated Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario incumbent Garry Guzzo to become the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the Ottawa West-Nepean riding and was appointed by Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty as Minister of Consumer and Business Services on October 23, 2003.  He became Ontario's first Minister of Health Promotion on June 29, 2005.
caption: MPP Jim Watson speaking at the 2009 Ottawa Folk Festival
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