Liberal incumbent Maryam Monsef will return to Ottawa as the MP for the riding of Peterborough-Kawartha.
In what was a back-and-forth race early, Monsef edged Conservative candidate Michael Skinner in a rematch of the 2015 federal election.
The NDP’s Candace Shaw finished third followed by Andrew MacGregor of the Green Party, Alexander Murphy of the People’s Party of Canada, independent candidate Robert Bowers and Ken Ranney of the startup Stop Climate Change Party.
Monsef won the 2015 election with 29,159 votes out of 66,732 cast (43.8 per cent), ahead of Skinner with 23,335 votes (35 per cent). Dave Nickel of the NDP was a distant third with 12,437 votes (18.7 per cent). She spent the last term first serving as
The riding has long been considered a bellwether, having elected a member of the governing party in all but four elections from 1953 to 2019.
“Win the riding, win the government” has been an adage in Peterborough, as the party forming the government has won the riding in every election since 1965 with one exception in 1980. The same political result has occurred on the provincial level since 1987.
The riding includes all of the City of Peterborough and Peterborough County, including Douro-Dummer, Havelock-Belmont-Methuen, North Kawartha, Selwyn and Trent Lakes townships and Curve Lake First Nation.
A rural riding of approximately 2,100 square kilometres, it features mostly rural land with some urban areas, including Peterborough city. The 2016 census says the average age of the Peterborough metropolitan area resident is 44, with nearly 98 per cent speaking English as their first language. The median total income of households in 2015 was $64,777.
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