Meagan Simpson, Centretown News
Justin Trudeau amps up the crowd at a Liberal rally with Ottawa Centre candidate Catherine McKenna.Liberal leader Justin Trudeau told a rally in Ottawa Centre last week that the team his party is assembling is best suited to bring change to Canada.
Hundreds cheered as Catherine McKenna, the Liberal candidate in Ottawa Centre introduced Trudeau to the packed Little Italy banquet hall. She will be facing long-time incumbent NDP MP Paul Dewar who says he’s happy to run on his record.
“What I hear at the doors is that people are excited about the possibility of a new Liberal government, of a new vision, a new change in tone,” McKenna said in an interview.
“I’m working hard to do this – to make the case that the Liberal party has the opportunity to form government and really importantly for Ottawa we will finally have a voice in government.”
McKenna says she believes her party will have an opportunity to carry out meaningful progressive policy changes. She wants to create a better partnership with the provinces for infrastructure and healthcare investment, encouraging environmentally sustainable development, creating job growth by offering employers a temporary employment insurance exemption for new hires, and fostering better government co-operation with Canada’s Aboriginal communities.
Trudeau preached a similar message, encouraging Ottawa Centre voters to cast their ballots for change.
The Liberal leader criticized the Harper government for relying too much on the energy sector to drive growth in Canada, calling the Conservatives’ economic plan the equivalent of “the dog ate my homework.”
McKenna says one of the most encouraging parts of the rally was the diversity of people who showed up.
The party has tried to get its leadership to reflect this diversity through initiatives such as the “invite her to run” campaign.
“Catherine McKenna is a strong female leader and I think we need to see more of those in Canadian politics,” says Tanvir Janmohamed, president of Ottawa Centre Young Liberals.
Janmohamed says she was attracted to the party because she felt it gave a voice to youth.
McKenna has practiced law in Canada and Indonesia, taught at the University of Toronto, and has served as a legal adviser to the United Nations on a peacekeeping mission in East Timor. She co-founded the charitable organization Canadian Lawyers Abroad, which operates in developing countries and with Aboriginal communities in Canada to partner children with lawyers in order to help children reach their potential through law. She has been an Ottawa Centre resident for more than a decade and won the Liberal nomination in May 2014.
But McKenna and the Liberals are not the only alternative to Harper’s Conservatives. Dewar has increased his share of the popular vote in every election, receiving more than 52 per cent in 2011.
Dewar attributes his success to the community oriented approach he learned from his mother, former mayor Marion Dewar.
“She was always very rooted in the notion that you’re there really to represent the community first,” Dewar says.
During his time in Parliament, Dewar has advocated for better cycling infrastructure within the city, the development of affordable housing at LeBreton Flats and an end to the dumping of raw sewage into the Ottawa River.
As a member of the Official Opposition, he has been pushing for corporate tax hikes to help pay for affordable childcare and increase the federal minimum wage to $15.
Citing differences between the NDP and the Liberals’ environmental, economic and foreign policies, Dewar says he hopes progressive voters not only focus on getting the Conservatives out of power, but also on what kind of government they want to replace it with.
“I think it’s incumbent to put forward ideas, to have policy discussions, to allow people to vote their values and not just have people feel like they have to hold their nose and vote quote ‘strategically.’ Hopefully we can have something more robust,” he says.
Both the Conservatives and the Green Party have yet to nominate their candidates.