I’m back in Ottawa Center. Goodbye Ottawa South and David McGuinty
Electoral District boundary redistribution means I'm back in Ottawa Center, where I was in 1987.
Every 10 years, Canada’s Federal Electoral Districts are reviewed based on census data. Districts are then changed for the election after the changes. A review was recently concluded in 2022, so the imminent Federal Election will be with the new districts.
While I've been living in the same place since 2003, I’m now back in Ottawa Center.
Ottawa Center
I came to Ottawa in 1987 to attend Carleton University. I found a room in the Glebe, and was living with the owner and one other student that was renting a room. I then moved to an apartment on Flora St (and thus the domain name).
In both these cases I was in Ottawa Center. While I was starting to get interested in politics, the federal MP was Mac Harb. My impression at the time was that he wasn’t involved in local politics. I never met him in person, or was really aware he existed.
Ottawa Vanier
After getting married in 1997 I moved to Coop Voisins, which is in Ottawa Vanier. There I met the MP, Mauril Belanger. While I was still active with the Green Party, he was always willing to spend time with me to discuss policy and the political process.
Mauril Bélanger was my reminder of the importance of public service
I spent the morning being reminded of the importance of public service. I first met Mauril Bélanger in 1996 the context of the Defence Fund for the Montreal Rally (Rally during the Quebec referendum of 1995), and SOS Montfort. When I moved into his riding in 1997
Ottawa South
My wife and I moved to a townhouse in South Keys Landing in 2003, which up until this federal election was in Ottawa South. I wrote a letter to then MP John Manley. I quickly started to hear rumours that he was stepping down, and that David McGuinty might be seeking the nomination. I wrote Mr. McGuinty at his National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy contact email address.
We met for the first time in May of 2004, prior to the June election. We have met a number of times since (including in the Government Lobby). He has been very helpful in taking messages I write and forward them on to Cabinet Ministers, given fellow MPs are more likely to get responses from Cabinet Ministers than average citizens would.
It wasn’t uncommon for him to call me on my cell phone to give me an update on policy related to one of the letters I sent him.
By the early 2000’s I had given up on partisan politics, and started to vote for the person I thought was the best option in the district. David McGuinty was often that best option. When I didn’t vote for him it was primarily because of something the Liberal party had done to make voting for a Liberal nominated candidate impossible, or once when I voted for Huda Mukbil. That was the first time I voted for an NDP nominated candidate.
Ottawa Center
With the most recent boundary redistribution, I’m back in Ottawa Center. There is far more interesting going on in Federal and Provincial politics in this district now. While 338Canada’s prediction is the incumbent Liberal nominated candidate Yasir Naqvi will retain his seat, this time he is running against Joel Harden who won against Yasir Naqvi in the 2018 Ontario general election. Unlike in Ottawa South where the Conservative candidate was always a contender, Ottawa Center has always been a battle between the NDP nominated candidate and the Liberal nominated candidate.
While I can wish that Ranked Ballots were in play, and thus new interesting candidates and parties could win seats, that isn’t yet the system Canadian federal or provincial politics uses (and because Doug Ford is stuck in the 1800’s, even though he became PC leader via a Ranked Ballot, even Ottawa’s municipal government isn’t allowed to use Ranked Ballots).
While I strongly dislike the NDP and Liberal parties, I am willing to hold my nose and vote for a person despite their party affiliation.
The NDP makes that harder than the Liberals, given the NDP are far more focused on the toxic notion of “party popular vote” and solidarity with party silos, but I’m not going to rule out Joel Harding because of that.
Why I don't see myself in the NDP
I wasn’t excited about the Ontario Election, especially in a district where the outcome seemed certain. It is the Electoral District that matters, not some false notion of a Provincial party or party-leader centric campaign.
In previous elections the Catherine McKenna campaign claimed “vote splitting” (something that still exists because ranked ballots haven’t been adopted yet) meant you had to vote for her (Liberal) and not the NDP nominated candidate to keep the Conservative candidate out. The Conservative candidate had no chance of winning, and vote splitting wasn’t relevant in Ottawa Center. This type of dishonesty, using vote splitting as a political tool, has been a regular part of Liberal and Conservative party campaigning for as long as I can remember.
What did Justin Trudeau and the 2015 Liberal platform team do wrong on electoral reform
While partisans from opposition parties and supportive multi-partisan interest groups have their own take on what went wrong with electoral reform after the 2015 election, I'll offer a non-partisan take on what Justin Trudeau did wrong.
I've been watching Joel Harden in politics since I was in University and he was with the CFS. He did a decent job during the free dumb convoy, and I suspect he'd be interested in both electoral reform and party reform. I look forward to your perspective on what happens in your riding.