The former city councillor will take a seat in the Ontario legislature two years after losing their bid to become Ottawa’s mayor.
Catherine McKenney made an emphatic return to the political arena Thursday as the former city councillor was elected to Queen’s Park in a landslide.
McKenney won Ottawa Centre with more than 56 per cent of the vote, easily outdistancing second-place finisher, Liberal Thomas Simpson.
With 95 per cent of polls reporting, McKenney held a 18,772 vote lead.
“Ottawa Centre, I love you, thank you for believing me,” McKenney told jubilant supporters gathered at The Royal Oak pub, where drag queen Sunshine Glitterchild performed for a crowd energized by the news that the NDP would form the official opposition at Queen’s Park.
“This victory belongs to you,” McKenney told the crowd, adding: “The pendulum has swung far enough to the right – and this is where we stop it.”
A two-term councillor for Somerset Ward, McKenney will take a seat in the Ontario legislature two-and-a-half years after losing a bruising contest for Ottawa’s mayoralty to Mark Sutcliffe.
“It feels great to be back in politics,” said McKenney, who vowed to work to end homelessness, return rent controls and find doctors for Ottawa residents.
“Please know if you are sleeping in a shelter tonight, when I wake up tomorrow, you will be my priority,” they said.
Defeated Liberal candidate Thomas Simpson, a former executive with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, conceded at 9:50 p.m.
“We found ways to connect with thousands of voters across this riding on the phone and in person. Thank you all so much for all the work been done,” he told his supporters.
Even after Ottawa Centre turned orange, the Senate Tavern on Bank was swiftly transformed into a bright red Liberal stronghold by Simpson’s team of eager volunteers, with red strobe lights and countless election signs on every wall.
Evening Update
Simpson is a newcomer to provincial politics, telling the Ottawa Citizen this election campaign was always going to be an uphill battle. “We were up against someone with name recognition.”
Other candidates in Ottawa Centre included the Green Party’s Simon Beckett, a property manager and former dance choreographer, and Progressive Conservative candidate Scott Healey, a retired member of the Canadian Armed Forces.
During the campaign, Healey admitted he faced an uphill battle in Ottawa Centre, which has never been captured by a Conservative candidate.
In six decades, Ottawa Centre has been held by either an NDP or Liberal politician.
Also on the ballot this year were Shannon Boschy of the Ontario Party, Maria deSouza of the New Blue Party, Cashton Perry of the Communist Party of Canada (Ontario), and Josh Rachlis, an independent.
McKenney, who uses the pronoun ‘they,’ was last on the public stage during the 2022 mayoralty campaign, conducted in the bitter aftermath of the truckers’ occupation of downtown Ottawa.
During that crisis, McKenney’s profile was elevated by their forceful defence of beleaguered downtown residents. As councillor for Somerset Ward, ground zero for the protest, McKenney was often on Centretown streets, and once dialed into a council meeting from a road jammed with trucks and rigs, demanding to know how the city and police planned to clear the occupiers.
McKenney enjoyed a large, early lead in the mayoralty race. But Sutcliffe, despite a late start, overcame that deficit by painting McKenney as an activist, “downtown” candidate overly focused on bike lanes.
Before entering municipal politics, McKenney worked as an adviser and political staffer in the offices of city councillors Diane Holmes and Alex Munter, and federal MPs Ed Broadbent and Paul Dewar. McKenney has also co-founded CitySHAPES, a non-profit dedicated to building “stronger, more livable Canadian cities.”
During the provincial election campaign, McKenney vowed to fight for the reinstatement of rent control and more publicly-funded, non-market housing.
They vowed to work on behalf of the 165,000 people in Ottawa without a family doctor, and also said they intend to push the province to pay half of OC Transpo’s operating costs so it can hire more drivers, improve service and freeze fares.
Ottawa Centre has been held by the NDP since 2018.
McKenney entered the race after the NDP incumbent, Joel Harden, won the nomination as the New Democratic candidate in Ottawa Centre in the next federal election.
Harden will compete for the seat in a rematch against Yasir Naqvi, the incumbent Liberal. A former provincial cabinet minister, Naqvi represented Ottawa Centre at Queen’s Park for three terms before losing to Harden in the 2018 provincial election.
With files from Justin Ball.
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