Canada election results: Ottawa Centre

Liberal Party candidate Yasir Naqvi is projected to win in the riding of Ottawa Centre, marking a successful return to public office for the former provincial representative.

Naqvi held off NDP challenger Angella MacEwen to keep the riding for the Liberals in a tight race that ran late into election night.

Liberal incumbent Catherine McKenna, the former minister of infrastructure, announced in June that she would not seek re-election.

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Naqvi is the former Attorney General of Ontario but left politics for a short time after losing his seat in the 2018 provincial election.

He returned to run in and ultimately win the same riding federally in this election.

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This riding’s western border zigzags up Fisher Avenue, west down Baseline Road, up Merivale Road, east down Highway 417, and up Maitland Avenue and Sherbourne Road to the Ottawa River.

Ottawa Centre’s eastern border runs from the top of the Rideau Canal to approximately the Nicholas Street highway overpass and then snakes southward down the Rideau River. The riding’s southern edge runs between where Walkley Road meets the river to Fisher Avenue and Prince of Wales Drive.

McKenna, a lawyer, managed to recapture the seat in this riding during the 2019 federal election. Mckenna ended the night with 48.7 per cent of the vote. The NDP’s Emilie Taman came in second place with 29 per cent, and Carol Clemenhagen of the Conservative Party garnered 12.6 per cent.

In June 2021, McKenna announced her retirement from politics, saying her decision not to run again in the next federal election was a “difficult” one.

McKenna served as the minister of the environment and climate change from 2015-2019 and was then moved into the infrastructure minister role during a cabinet shuffle in November 2019.

In August 2021, former Liberal MPP of the Ottawa Centre riding Yasir Naqvi announced he will run in the same riding federally.

According to the 2016 census, Ottawa Centre has a population of 118,038, and 101,219 registered voters. Mandarin and Arabic make up some of the most common non-official languages in the area.

Liberal: Yasir Naqvi

Conservative: Carol Clemenhagen

NDP: Angella MacEwen

Green: Angela Keller-Herzog

People’s Party of Canada: Regina Watteel