Economist nominated as Ottawa Centre candidate
MacEwen vows to fight for public transit, affordable housing and the working class
Economist Angella MacEwen has been nominated as the federal New Democratic Party candidate in Ottawa Centre, a riding that will not have an incumbent.
Liberal cabinet minister Catherine McKenna had been expected to reclaim her seat in the next election, widely expected this fall, but her surprise announcement that she's retiring from federal politics has put the riding into play.
MacEwen vowed Sunday to take back Ottawa Centre for the NDP, which held it for more than a decade before McKenna upset Paul Dewar in 2015.
“I know that together we can win back this seat and fight for the fair economic policies that our country needs,” said MacEwen, who defeated Ottawa public school board trustee Lyra Evans to claim the New Democratic Party nomination on Sunday.
The Liberal government, MacEwen told supporters, has continued to subsidize oil and gas companies rather than paying to retrain workers or investing in climate action.
She vowed to fight for public infrastructure investments, such as public transit and affordable housing, and for working-class people.
“We've seen throughout this pandemic that this government has given a better deal to corporations and the powerful than they have to regular folks,” MacEwen said.
“They didn't offer benefits to folks with disabilities, but they made sure that corporations got their wage subsidy and their handouts, and were still able to pay out dividends to shareholders and bonuses to CEOs.”
MacEwen said she will use the principles of “big organizing,” a volunteer-driven approach to campaigning that helped the NDP's Joel Harden upset Liberal cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi in the 2018 provincial election.
Naqvi has already announced that he intends to seek the federal Liberal nomination in Ottawa Centre.
The Saskatchewan-born MacEwen, a senior economist with the Canadian Union of Public Employees and a fellow with the Broadbent Institute, describes herself as a progressive who fights for good jobs and secure pensions.
Her work focuses on understanding the impact of Canada's economic and social policy on the country's workers.
In 2019, MacEwen ran as the federal NDP candidate in Ottawa West-Nepean.
She earned 18.7 per cent of the vote and finished third behind incumbent Liberal Anita Vandenbeld and second-place finisher, Conservative Abdul Abdi.