It’s no shock Ottawa South stayed red in the recent Ontario election. Liberals have held the riding steadily since 1987, with this vote marking the fifth consecutive win for John Fraser.
What is shocking, however, is, despite Fraser taking half the ballots cast, only 22.6 per cent of eligible voters in Ottawa South put an X next to his name. That’s because fewer than half of all voters eligible to cast ballots showed up.
“There is another epidemic afflicting democracies worldwide — that of declining voter engagement and turnout,” said Greg Essensa, Ontario’s chief electoral officer, after Ontario’s previous vote was held in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The June 2022 election had the lowest recorded voter turnout in provincial history. Just more than 44 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballot. This year’s election saw only a slight increase in voter turnout to 45.4 per cent.
In Ottawa South, 42.47 per cent of eligible voters exercised their right, about 3.6 percentage points below the city average of 46.08 per cent and 2.7 percentage points below the provincial average of 45.4 per cent.
Fraser won 53.2 per cent of the ballots cast with 19,558 votes. Jan Gao of the PCs was second with 24.6 per cent, Morgan Gay of the NDP came in third with 17.8 per cent and Nira Dookeran of the Greens won 2.9 per cent of votes cast.
Fraser’s campaign was centred around accessible health care, improving education infrastructure and addressing housing affordability concerns.
“My top priority is health care: ensuring that everyone in Ottawa South has access to a family doctor by 2029,” Fraser told Ottawa Citizen.
Fraser had served as interim leader for the Liberal party from June 2018 to March 2020, and again from August 2022 to December 2023.
Fraser first took office in 2013 and, 12 years later, his support does not seem to be wavering. In the 2022 election, he won with 45.14 per cent of the vote. In this election, he collected 4,404 more votes than in the election before.
After five straight Progressive Conservative wins in the 1970s and 80s, the riding turned to the Liberals in 1987 under Dalton McGuinty Sr., the father of the former premier Dalton McGuinty. The Liberals have had a tight grip on Ottawa South since.
