Ontario election 2018: Ottawa-Vanier riding

Voters in Ottawa-Vanier re-elected Nathalie Des Rosiers of the Liberal party as their MPP in the 2018 Ontario election.

Candidates

Liberals: Nathalie Des Rosiers (elected)
PC: Fadi Nemr
NDP: Lyra Evans
Green: Sheilagh McLean

Geography

A traditionally French-speaking riding in east Ottawa, this district comprises virtually everything east of the Rideau Canal and north of Queensway, excluding part of Cardinal Heights but including the neighbourhood of Pineview.

History

Former University of Ottawa law dean Nathalie Des Rosiers handed the Liberal party its 14th consecutive win in the riding in a 2016 byelection. The Liberals have taken this seat in every election since 1971, when Albert Roy won what was then known as Ottawa East. Des Rosier’s predecessor, Liberal MPP and cabinet minister Madeleine Meilleur, won this riding by more than 13,000 votes in the 2014 election. Des Rosiers beat her PC rival, André Marin, by just shy of 6,000 votes.

By the numbers

Only 47 per cent of people in this riding listed English as their mother tongue in the 2016 census – the lowest number in the Ottawa region (aside from Glengarry–Prescott–Russell, where French as a mother tongue outranked English). A rapidly gentrifying area, Ottawa–Vanier’s average household size of 2.1 is second-lowest of the 10 Ottawa ridings.