About Robyn

Robyn Mary Elizabeth Guest
June 14, 1968 – October 5, 2025

Beloved partner, mother, daughter, sister, friend, and builder of a better Ottawa

With deep love and great sadness, the family of Robyn Mary Elizabeth Guest announces her peaceful passing Sunday surrounded by love. Diagnosed in January of this year with peritoneal mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer, Robyn met each day with quiet stoicism and good humour.

Fierce, kind, and brave in her fight against all odds, she left us at the at the heartbreaking age of 57. She was grateful for a summer that ran late and was filled with conversations, laughter and meaningful exchanges with, and messages from, those she loved. She was the cherished life-partner to Chris Swail, adoring and devoted mom to Devyn and Quinnlan, proud grandmother of little Elly. She will be missed terribly by brother Brian Guest and partner Maureen Welch.

Born to Robert and Colleen Guest, both life-long civil servants, Robyn was raised to have a public-spirited heart and a belief that a community is something you make, not just a place you live in.

Brilliant, kind and generous in equal measure, Robyn had a gift for turning caring into action. Before starting her own family, she and Chris fostered many children, offering a home with steadiness, love and laughter at a time of distress for little ones in need.

Robyn’s mind was as expansive as her heart. Artistic, athletic and analytical as well as smart, humble and compassionate. She attended Canterbury High School’s Arts Program, first in the dance program, after years as an accomplished figure skater, then in music to graduate. In those high school years and the years that followed, she formed deep and enduring friendships with Barbara, Heather, Sue, Leanne, Rob, Kate, Ian and many others. She went on to earn a BA in International Development Studies from Trent University, that included a pivotal year in Ecuador, working on the ground to establish a daycare for impoverished families. She then went on to complete her MA at Dalhousie and St. Mary’s Universities. Somehow, in the middle there, she squeezed in co-founding the famous Manx Pub on Elgin Street, before going on to her PhD at the University of Alberta.

After doing policy work on Parliament Hill early in her career, Robyn joined the City of Ottawa and held many roles over her more than 20-year tenure. She served as a principal assistant to the City Manager for 10 years, and in the office of three mayors, most recently as Chief of Staff to Mayor Sutcliffe. Much of the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting for dozens of landmark projects had Robyn as a driving force such as the new Central Library (Ādisōke), the Ottawa Art Gallery, Lansdowne Park redevelopment, the LRT projects, and to lay the groundwork for the new Civic Hospital campus.