Ottawa Centre is one to watch
Historically NDP, Liberal riding is now without an incumbent
Ottawa Centre could be the one wild card for the Liberals in Canada's capital city as they end their minority government and roll the dice with voters in September during a pandemic-era federal election.
The spotlight is on the federal riding since it's without an incumbent after Catherine McKenna decided against seeking re-election to focus on her children and fighting climate change outside of elected politics.
But what makes the riding intriguing is its history of NDP representation.
It wasn't too long ago when McKenna stole the riding from the late Paul Dewar and the NDP as the Liberals won power in 2015.
Now, it's a clean slate, with the NDP sending Angella MacEwen to steal back the seat and Yasir Naqvi defending the riding for the Liberals.
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking Gov. Gen. Mary Simon on Sunday to dissolve Parliament, a federal election scheduled for Sept. 20 means Ottawa Centre will likely attract the most curiosity of all the ridings in Canada's capital city.
COVID-19 has coloured every local issue that typically comes up during a federal election, from housing to employment to transit to asset management.
The federal government has more impact on the lives of residents in the capital than perhaps anywhere else in Canada, largely because of region's dependence on public service jobs.
The future of federal government jobs and office spaces, especially in downtown Ottawa, is a linchpin for Ottawa's economy.
There were more than 127,000 federal employees in the National Capital Region as of March 2020, according to government figures, and the pandemic forced many workers to get their jobs done from home.
Since then, commercial units in downtown's core have become vacant and public transit ridership, along with the transit revenue, has dropped severely.
With the City of Ottawa signalling its dependence on the two senior levels of government for future LRT expansions, residents of Barrhaven, Stittsville and Kanata will be watching for any election promises related to bringing rail service to those suburban areas.
The city has done its homework and the preliminary environmental studies are complete.
LeBreton Flats has been somewhat of a nebulous political issue at the federal level. The National Capital Commission has longterm and phased development plans after the failed attempt to plan a mixed-use community anchored by a new NHL arena.
Political oversight of the NCC hasn't fallen to a local cabinet minister in Trudeau's governments and it's unclear how much influence local MPs have on the transformative project.
There's continued pressure in the capital to put words into action when it comes to Indigenous reconciliation.
While the federal government and the city have given the future new super library on LeBreton Flats an Anishinābemowin name (Ādisōke, which means storytelling), there will be scrutiny on the Flats redevelopment and other projects on government land to make sure Indigenous peoples are consulted and respected.
There have been calls to change the name of the NCC-owned Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway to acknowledge the role Canada's first prime minister played in creating the residential school system. To this point, there's no indication that the parkway's name will be changed.
Political junkies in Ottawa might be looking elsewhere for gritty riding contests if recent history continues forward into the election campaign.
The Liberals have dominated Ottawa's federal politics with Trudeau in charge of the party and the city provided the recent government with two cabinet ministers in McKenna and Ottawa-Vanier MP Mona Fortier.
Ottawa-Vanier is one local riding that has provided non-stop slam dunks for the Liberals for decades. Ottawa South has also been a reliable win for the Liberals since 1988 and incumbent David McGuinty will try keeping it red again.
Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, which has a sliver covering Ottawa's Cumberland area, has been historically Liberal, with an exception in recent times when it was Conservative during the Harper years.
Kanata-Carleton could be exposed for the Liberals, similar to Ottawa Centre.
Karen McCrimmon only announced Aug. 8 that she wouldn't seek re-election for the Liberals.
It's up to Jenna Sudds, who has name recognition as a city councillor, to hold a riding that has a history of Conservative representation when Gordon O'Connor was MP. The Conservatives will have Jennifer McAndrew on the ballot.
The Tories didn't have much representation in Parliament from ridings in the City of Ottawa after the 2019 federal election.
Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative incumbent in Carleton, was on a blue island in a sea of red.
Evidentially eager to hit the hustings, he started rolling out his campaign-style ads around the start of August.
The Harper-era cabinet minister and one-time finance critic has been the party's mainstay in Ottawa since 2004, often receiving national attention for his digs and needling questions of political foes. This time, the Liberals are sending Gustave Roy into battle against the seasoned Poilievre.
On the other side of the Ottawa River, residents of Gatineau have seen federal representation from several parties over the past 40 years, but the city has mostly had Liberal MPs, with incumbents Greg Fergus in Hull-Aylmer and Steve MacKinnon in Gatineau aiming to hold their respective ridings next month.