Longtime MP Pierre Poilievre seeks re-election in Carleton, a largely rural Ottawa riding with growing suburbs.
Quick facts
- Size of the riding: 1,873 square kilometres
- Population: 124,305 (2021)
- Density: 66.8 people per square kilometre
- Median household income: $135,000
- Median age: 41.6 (2021)
- Estimated number of electors: 99,087
- Knowledge of official languages: English (69.4 per cent), French (0.3 per cent), English and French (29.4 per cent), neither English nor French (0.9 per cent)
Where is Carleton?
Carleton is a large, mainly rural riding that hugs the southern part of the City of Ottawa in a broad expanse from Renfrew County in the west to Prescott-Russell in the east. It encompasses the communities of Stittsville, Metcalfe and Osgoode, as well as Fitzroy Harbour and Constance Bay, which were added after a recent riding redistribution.
That redistribution made the riding larger and added mostly rural areas.
The riding, in various iterations over the decades, has largely been a Conservative stronghold, especially recently.
2021 Federal election results
- Conservative: 36,534 (51.9 per cent)
- Liberal: 22,448 (31.9 per cent)
- NDP: 8,012 (11.4 per cent)
- People’s Party: 1,939 (2.8 per cent)
- Green: 1,512 (2.2 per cent)
- Others: 7 (0.01 per cent)
Recent electoral history
Carleton riding, or an earlier configuration of the riding, has been held by Conservative incumbent and party leader Pierre Poilievre since 2004, when he was 25 years old. He won that election with close to 50 per cent of the votes. The riding, which was known as Nepean-Carleton in 2004, was later reconfigured to be Carleton.
Evening Update
Since that first electoral victory, Poilievre has held the riding for more than two decades. The 2025 election, in a newly reconfigured Carleton riding, will be Poilievre’s first as Conservative Party leader, seeking to become prime minister. One calculation shows that Poilievre would have gained a higher proportion of the vote — from 49.9 per cent to 51.86 per cent — if the riding had been redistributed in 2021 as it is now. His key rival for the job of prime minister, Liberal Leader Mark Carney, will be seeking election as a first-time candidate in the neighbouring riding of Nepean.
Who are the candidates?
Pierre Poilievre, 45, is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He’s both a long-time incumbent and the highest-profile candidate seeking election in the riding. He was born and raised in Calgary and became involved in politics, both the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, while a teen. He joined the Conservative Official Opposition after winning in Nepean-Carleton in 2004 against Liberal incumbent David Pratt. When the Conservative Party formed government in 2006, first as a minority, Poilievre earned a reputation as the government’s attack dog. He later served in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet. He was elected party leader in 2022. He leads a party that has seen a 20-point lead in the polls vanish since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, putting the Liberals in the lead, according to numerous polls. Poilievre, who is fluently bilingual, is married to Anaida Poilievre and they have two children.
Liberal Bruce Fanjoy lives in Manotick with his wife Donna in a passive, net-zero home he helped design. He worked in business and marketing before leaving to become a full-time parent. He has knocked on thousands of doors in the riding in his quest to defeat the long-time incumbent.
NDP candidate Beth Prokaska is a retired teacher, a mother, and a community advocate. As an educator, she has spent the last 25 years teaching music and supporting families across the Ottawa–Carleton District School Board.
Chantale Dore represents the People’s Party of Canada in the riding. The party’s biography says Dore has a “strong dedication” to the community and stands for the values of freedom, personal responsibility, respect and fairness.
