Ottawa Centre could be in play, post-McKenna
Liberal's departure from politics gives NDP hope of regaining seat lost in 2015
Catherine McKenna's surprise announcement that she wouldn't seek re-election in Ottawa Centre has become a huge opportunity for the Liberals' main political rival in the capital's core.
With an incumbent out of the picture, there will be pressure on the NDP to reclaim the riding McKenna nabbed from Paul Dewar and the NDP in 2015. The riding has flipped between Liberal and NDP over the past 40 years, but has mostly been in the hands of the Grits.
The NDP association in Ottawa Centre announced the date for its nomination meeting and the contenders just days before McKenna confirmed she wouldn't seek re-election.
To win back the seat, NDP members in Ottawa Centre selected a candidate who has been battle-tested in a federal election.
Angella MacEwen will be representing the NDP. The CUPE senior economist also ran for the NDP in the 2019 federal vote, finishing third in the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean.
But MacEwen won't have an easy campaign.
The Liberals have selected former provincial Liberal cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi as their candidate. He was the Ottawa Centre MPP before losing to the NDP's Joel Harden in the last provincial election.
The Conservatives are sending Carol Clemenhagen to fight for the riding, her second attempt at winning in Ottawa Centre after a third-pace showing in the 2019 election. Clemenhagen spent her career in health care, including years as an executive. She was the first woman to be president and CEO of the Canadian Hospital Association.
Running again for the Green Party is economist and activist Angela Keller-Herzog, who finished fourth in the 2019 federal election in Ottawa Centre.
The riding has some of the most significant federal land holdings in the national capital region outside of Gatineau Park, driving debates about appropriate uses of assets owned by all Canadians.
Through the National Capital Commission, the federal government owns LeBreton Flats and the much of the land along the Ottawa River. The Rideau Canal, managed by Parks Canada, flows through the riding, providing part of the eastern boundary. In the heart of Ottawa Centre is the Central Experimental Farm, part of which will be ripped up to build the new Ottawa Hospital Civic campus.
In fact, federal assets are all over Ottawa Centre, including bridges that connect to Gatineau and NCC-managed roads, such as Island Park Drive, Queen Elizabeth Driveway, Colonel By Drive and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. The federal government is a partner in the future super-library on LeBreton Flats — and it has dreams of transforming Tunney's Pasture into a major mixed-use community.
All that and the entire parliamentary precinct, too, is in Ottawa Centre.
The 2016 census listed the riding's population as 118,038 and it continues to grow, considering the frequent groundbreakings of high-density developments in the riding. The average age of the population was 40.8 years old at the time of the last census. Visible minorities made up about 20 per cent of the riding 's population.
ELECTION RESULTS
Catherine McKenna easily took the riding by winning 48.7 per cent of the votes, with the NDP's Emilie Taman placing second with 29 per cent. The Conservatives' Clemenhagen came in third, with 12.6 per cent of the votes.