Ottawa cobbler on 25 years of fixes — and the sidewalk staple 'that will kill your shoes'

Ottawa ·Video Merhi's store is in a government-owned building in downtown Ottawa. Public servants make up three quarters of his clientele.(Guy Quenneville/CBC) Merhi, top left, is pictured here with some of his siblings in 1986, the year his family came to Canada from Lebanon.(Muhamad Merhi) Heels are a thing that commonly need fixing, Merhi says.(Guy Quenneville/CBC) 'It is a dying trade. Nobody wants to learn,' Merhi says.(Guy Quenneville/CBC) Thickly-applied sidewalk salt, like this clump in front of a business on Queen Street in early December, will 'kill your shoes,' Merhi says.(Guy Quenneville/CBC) Merhi says he learned the craft from his father back in Lebanon. His dad wanted to keep Merhi and his brothers off the street after school and during the summer, he says.(Guy Quenneville/CBC) Ottawa cobbler on 25 years of fixes - and the sidewalk staple 'that will kill your shoes' Muhamad Merhi's stand a fixture of downtown government building Graeme Parker has worn the same Blundstone boots for almost a decade now - a shelf life he credits to an Ottawa cobbler who he says has "guided" his shoes through the years. The repairman in question is Muhamad Merhi, and in 2026 his store will celebrate 25 years of business inside the federal government's downtown C.D. Howe Building. Parker, who works as a senior government adviser in that Sparks Street office tower, says Merhi stuck "some magic thing" on the bottom of a recently purchased pair of shoes that were giving him blisters. Merhi had previously made Parker a replacement suitcase handle out of leather that "looks and feels better" than the original. "We live in turbulent times," Parker says, "and it's good to know that no matter what happens, I can get my shoes taken care of." Sole practitioner Like the glue he uses to keep shoes together, Merhi has stuck to what he acknowledges is "a dying trade." Growing up in Lebanon, he and his brothers learned the craft from their shoemaker father. One Christmas Eve in the 1980s, Merhi's 11-member family moved to Canada to escape the civil war back home. Merhi can measure his time in Canada using prime ministers: Brian Mulroney for his family's arrival, for example, and the latter years of the Jean Chrétien government for when Merhi opened his store inside C.D. Howe's lower-level concourse. The public servants who stream by Merhi's shop and who make up about 75 per cent of his clientele have come and gone over the last quarter-century. But Merhi Quality Shoe Repair has remained in place despite waves of government layoffs, years-long construction surrounding the shop, and the COVID-19 pandemic. "I don't think I would have survived outside," he says. "Whenever government is not working, we're very slow." 'Paving the sidewalk' with salt Merhi's perch has allowed him to observe the rising and falling fashion trends among Ottawa's civil servant population. Blundstones like those he's nursed for Parker remain popular, zippered half boots less so. Merhi has also learned not to judge a suit by its...

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