Ottawa mayor Jim Watson is to begin physiotherapy next week, after fracturing his pelvis over the weekend in a snowmobile crash .  The mayor is in a great deal of pain, according to his sister, who adds, he isn't a very patient patient. To say the mayor is married to his job is an understatement.   He does 40 to 50 community events each week. This injury has literally knocked him off his feet but he isn't out of the game.   He may not be literally in the mayor’s chair, but Jim Watson is still running the ship much to the chagrin of his sister.

‘I was with Jim this morning,’ says his sister, Jayne Watson, ‘and he had his laptop going and his cellphone in one hand and a blackberry in another and he's trying to work as much as possible as he's recovering.’

‘I don’t think he’s going to be a very patient patient,’ she adds.

Watson was learning how to snowmobile Saturday in Osgoode, along with three city councillors when something went wrong.

‘He seemed to say he might have pushed the gas and fell off and banged his hip,’ councilor Mathieu Fleury said Sunday.  Fleury was one of the 3 councillors who were with the mayor.

That fall fractured his pelvis and sent him to hospital in considerable pain.  It's expected to take 4 to 6 weeks to heal.

For a mayor used to doing 40 to 50 community events a week, tweeting 50 times a day, in addition to his duties at city hall as mayor, slowing down may not be an option.

‘I think it will be difficult for the mayor to be idle too long,’ says councilor Diane Deans, ‘but I hear he's on drugs so maybe that will impact him in some way,’ she laughs. 

‘He may not physically be here’ adds councillor Keith Egli, ‘but he will be here virtually.’

It's not first time the city has been without a mayor in the chair. 

‘When mayor Larry O’Brien was mayor,’ recalls councillor Rick Chiarelli, ‘he had to leave for a period of time and the deputy mayor system took effect.’

The city's two Deputy Mayors will take over some of Watson's responsibilities including giving former Sens Star Daniel Alfredsson the keys to the city. Bob Monette jumped at that one.

‘Daniel Alfredsson is one of the most popular people in the city so it's a thrill for me to do that event,’ says Monette.

The mayor's office says Watson is adjusting to his surroundings and his medication and doesn't want to speak to the media just yet. He's got a good supply of reading material and lots of episodes of "House of Cards" to keep him busy.