Ontario election 2018: Orléans riding

Voters in Orléans have re-elected Marie-France Lalonde of the Liberal party as their MPP in the 2018 Ontario election.

Candidates

Liberals: Marie-France Lalonde (elected)
PC: Cameron Montgomery
NDP: Barbara Zarboni
Green: Nicholas Lapierre

Geography

The easternmost of what are traditionally recognized as the five urban Ottawa ridings, Orléans resembles an ‘L’ flipped upside down. Orléans extends east from the Trans-Canada Highway (and slightly south of it). The riding is bordered by Ramseyville Road to the west; the Ottawa River to the north; Frank Kenney Road and Carlsbad Lane/Frontier Road to the east; and Mitch Owens Road/Devine Road to the south. The top half of the riding is visibly more populated and suburban than the bottom half.

History

The Liberals have held this suburban riding since 2003, when Phil McNeely defeated incumbent PC MPP Brian Coburn. McNeely did not seek re-election in 2014. That year Marie-France Lalonde won the Liberal nomination and beat PC candidate Andrew Lister in the election with 53.50 per cent of the votes. Federally the riding voted Conservatives from 2006 to 2015, when it flipped and voted in Liberal MP Andrew Leslie.

By the numbers

Orléans saw a 7.6 per cent bump in its population growth between 2011 and 2016 – the highest increase of the five urban Ottawa ridings. It also boasts the highest percentage of married residents of the urban ridings – with 51.1 per cent saying they are either married or living common law. French is the mother tongue of 31.1 per cent of people in Orléans, second only to Glengarry–Prescott–Russell (58.2 per cent) in the Ottawa region.