Rick Chiarelli

Richard "Rick" Chiarelli is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is an Ottawa City Councillor, and the second cousin of former Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli. He represents the College Ward covering part of Nepean and Ottawa's west end.

At age 16, while attending St. Pius X high school in Ottawa, Rick Chiarelli formed the Ontario Students Alliance for Fair Funding (OSAFF) to fight for the equality that was promised in the Canadian Constitution. At this time, Ontario’s separate schools were funded only to grade 10. Beyond this, a high school student was required to pay substantial tuition fees.

Chiarelli began to speak at hundreds of schools and the OSAFF quickly grew to over 70,000 members across Ontario.

OSAFF launched a legal challenge against the Government of Ontario’s treatment of separate schools and convinced Ian Scott, a prominent Canadian lawyer, to represent them in court. The action was timed to coincide with the visit to the Premier by Pope John Paul II. The court imposed deadlines on the Province to file its full defence to the action. As a result, Premier Bill Davis announced a change in the Province’s century old policy and granted full funding to separate schools. The case was unanimously won by OSAFF 9-0 at the Supreme Court of Canada.

During OSAFF’s legal challenge, Chiarelli ran for school trustee of the school board and won. This resulted in Chiarelli becoming the youngest ever elected.

He was first elected to office at age 19 when he won a seat on the Carleton Separate School Board in 1980s. At the time, he was the youngest elected official in the province. He ran for a seat on the council of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa Carleton in 1985, but lost.

In 1988, he was elected to the Nepean City Council for the Borden ward. He was re-elected to Nepean council in 1994 in the newly created Nepean Centre Ward.

The 2000 municipal election was the first for the newly amalgamated City of Ottawa. Chiarelli, who had been a leading opponent of amalgamation, faced long-time Councillor Al Loney in what was thought would be one of the tightest election battles of the year. Chiarelli prevailed in a landslide and became Councillor for Baseline Ward. In 2003 Chiarelli was re-elected by acclamation. In 2006, after ward boundary changes, Chiarelli faced a challenge from cycling activist Brett Delmage in the election for Councillor of College Ward. Chiarelli won by a wide majority, securing 73% of the votes.

Rick Chiarelli is a second cousin of former Mayor Bob Chiarelli with whom he often disagreed on matters of policy. They are both members of the Ontario Liberal Party.