The Liberal party is hanging on tight to Ottawa-Vanier once again after the recent provincial election, marking more than a half-century of electoral domination going back to 1971 under the former Ottawa East configuration of the constituency.
But voter participation in last week’s election was lower in Ottawa-Vanier than in any of the nine Ottawa-area ridings.
Only 39.83 per cent of voters cast ballots out of more than 103,000 eligible electors. The turnout this year was about the same as the 39.42 per cent who showed up in 2022.
The low turnout caught the attention of Fair Vote Canada, which advocates for an end to first-past-the-post elections and the adoption of proportional representation to make voting more meaningful in non-competitive ridings and to reduce voter apathy.
“At the local level in Ontario, many ridings are ‘safe seats,’ where one of the parties could run a toaster and win. For example, a Liberal candidate has won every election in the riding of Ottawa-Vanier since 1971. Is it any surprise that voter turnout in the riding was 39 per cent?” said the organization in a post-election critique of the campaign. “In a winner-take-all system, the only voters who matter to the parties at election time are those who live in a few swing ridings.”
Ottawa-Vanier, which stretches from the eastern boundary of Centretown eastward along the Ottawa River and out to the Greenbelt, includes neighborhoods such as Sandy Hill, Rockcliffe, Gloucester and Beacon Hill.
The Liberal winner took 51.56 per cent of the total ballots in incumbent MPP Lucille Collard’s third victory in five years. The Progressive Conservative hopeful Marilissa Gosselin was second with 22.57 per cent of votes cast.
The Tories last held the riding when it was the geographically similar Ottawa East from 1967 to 1971. Only two Ottawa-area ridings went to the Progressive Conservatives in last week’s election: Carleton and Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. But the party still cruised to a third straight majority government overall.
Collard’s re-election did help the Liberals regain official party status with 14 seats in the Ontario legislature.
Ottawa delivered five of those seats, including victories in Orléans, Ottawa South, Kanata-Carleton and Nepean. In each case, Liberal support topped 45 per cent of the total votes.
Kanata-Carleton and Nepean had both gone to the PCs in the 2022 election, though Kanata-Carleton returned to the Liberal fold in a 2023 byelection.
Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie has said she will remain party leader, despite not winning the seat in her own riding of Mississauga-East Cooksville.
