Quick facts
- Size of riding: 96 square kilometres
- Population: 126,780 (2021)
- Density: 1,321 people per square kilometre
- Median household income in 2020: $91,000
- Median age: 37.6
- Estimated number of electors: 91,800
- Knowledge of official languages: English only (61.7 per cent), French only (1.7 per cent), English and French (34.3 per cent), neither English nor French (2.3 per cent)
Where is Ottawa South?
Ottawa South
encompasses both new and older suburbs, including Eastway Gardens, Alta Vista, Hunt Club, South Keys, Heron Gate, Airport-Uplands and Blossom Park. The riding is home to health care institutions, including CHEO, the General and Riverside campuses of The Ottawa Hospital, as well as the Ottawa International Airport.
It’s also a diverse riding. There are significant Black, Arab and South Asian communities. One in five riding residents is Muslim. One in three residents is an immigrant.
In the 2022 federal redistribution, the boundaries extended to the south to include Findlay Creek and lopped off a northwestern portion that includes Mooney’s Bay, Riverside Park and Billings Bridge, which are now in Ottawa Centre.
While the riding is bounded by Highway 417 and the Rideau River to the west and north, the southern boundaries are meandering and complicated.
Starting at the intersection of the Rideau River and Highway 417, the boundary runs east and southeast to Hunt Club Road, then southwest to Hawthorne Road, southeast to Blais Road, southwest to Bank Street and southeast from there to Rideau Road, southwest to Albion Road, northwest to High Road, west to Earl Armstrong Road, southwest to Bowesville Road, northwest to Leitrim Road, southwest to Limebank Road, northwest along Limebank and Riverside Drive to Hunt Club Road, then west to the Rideau River.
The boundary then follows the Rideau River to the Canadian National Railway corridor just south of Old Riverside Drive. It then follows northeast along the railway to Bank Street north of Johnston Road, then northwest along Bank Street to the Rideau River, returning to the beginning of the loop.
2021 federal election results
- Liberal: 29,250 (49.4 per cent)
- Conservative: 15,963 (27.0 percent)
- NDP: 10,729 (18.1 per cent)
- People’s Party: 1,829 (3.1 per cent)
- Green: 2,074 (2.2 per cent)
Recent electoral history
Ottawa South has been Liberal since it was created in 1988. That could change, but it would take a major upset for this Liberal stronghold associated with the McGuinty dynasty for decades.
David McGuinty
, a lawyer, has won every federal election in the riding since 2004, consistently garnering over 40 per cent of the vote even though ballots in Ottawa South always contain at least six names.
His father Dalton McGuinty Sr., was the MPP for the predecessor provincial riding from 1987 until his death in 1990. His brother Dalton was first elected as the MPP for the riding in 1990 and served as Ontario premier between 2003 and 2013.
On the federal side, Liberal John Manley held the federal riding between 1988 and 2003, when he announced he was leaving politics.
This is McGuinty’s eighth time to contest Ottawa South. In the 2019 federal election, he won over 52 per cent of the vote. That dropped slightly to around 49 per cent in the 2021 election, with about 26 per cent going to Conservative challenger Eli Tannis and 19 per cent to Huda Mukbil of the NDP.
The Conservative Party has consistently won about a quarter of the vote, peaking at almost 35 per cent in 2004.
Who are the candidates running in Ottawa South?
The Liberal, David McGuinty, was
named public safety minister
last December, his first time in Cabinet, and led the search to find a fentanyl czar to counter President Donald Trump’s concerns about drugs flowing across the border. He was the founding chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, president of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and president and CEO of the Prime Minister’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a government think-tank. He has also worked on behalf of UNICEF in Africa. Along with two bachelor’s degrees and credentials as a lawyer, McGuinty also has a diploma in agriculture.
The Conservative challenger this time is Blair Turner, who was a reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces before becoming a police officer in 2006, working in investigative units, including organized crime, guns, gangs and drug enforcement and the special victims unit. Turner also has a political pedigree. His father, Barry Turner, was the Tory MP for Ottawa-Carleton, one of Ottawa South’s predecessor ridings, between 1984 and 1988. Manley won the federal contest in the new riding of Ottawa South against the senior Turner in 1988.
The NDP’s Hena Masjedee has university degrees in earth science and environmental sustainability. She has worked in international affairs and national security and has been a federal employee for the past seven years.
Green Party candidate Nira Dookeran has been active in the Ontario Greens for over a decade. She taught civics, history, and English as a Second Language at Ridgemont High School.
Also on the ballot: Tony Papadimitrou of the People’s Party; Alex Perrier of the Christian Heritage Party, John Redins of the Canadian Future Party and Will Cooper of the Rhinoceros Party.
