The suburban Ottawa riding of Kanata has seen a major overhaul in its boundaries, will it stay Liberal in this election?
Quick facts
- Size of the riding: 211 square kilometres
- Population: 121,565 (2021)
- Density: 576 people per square kilometre
- Median household income: $122,000
- Median age: 40.8 (2021)
- Estimated number of electors: 90,004
- Knowledge of official languages: English (69.9 per cent), French (0.4 per cent), English and French (28.0 per cent), neither English nor French (1.7 per cent)
Where is Kanata?
The new federal riding of Kanata, which was formerly Kanata — Carleton until 2022’s federal redistribution, is smaller geographically and more urban than its predecessor, but also includes more residents.
Created following an independent review that took the 2021 census into account, the new riding includes much of the former city of Kanata, as well as Bells Corners, which previously was in the riding of Nepean. (That change escaped Liberal Party leader Mark Carney, who is running in the neighbouring riding of Nepean, when he made a small flub on March 23.)
The new Kanata-centric riding has also seen its western boundary change. The riding no longer stretches as far west as Renfrew County. Now, its western boundary is the road that goes by various names, from Berry Side Road beside the Ottawa River to Vaughan Side Road at Highway 417.
That means the rural communities of Dunrobin, Constance Bay, Kinburn and Fitzroy Harbour have been shifted into the neighbouring riding of Carleton, where Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is once again running.
Evening Update
Redistribution is also adding about 4,800 residents to the Kanata riding. It now has about 90,000 voters, among a population of about 121,500 according to the 2021 census. About 68 per cent of its residents are anglophones.
2021 federal election results
- Liberal: 26,394 (41.8 per cent)
- Conservative: 24,373 (38.6 percent)
- NDP: 8,822 (14.0 per cent)
- People’s Party: 1,858 (2.9 per cent)
- Green: 1,709 (2.7 per cent)
Recent electoral history
In the 2021 federal election, Liberal Jenna Sudds, a former Ottawa City Councillor, won Kanata-Carleton by just 1,921 votes, based on a 73.4 per cent turnout of 86,505 eligible voters. She prevailed over Conservative candidate Jennifer McAndrew, who received 38.6 per cent of the vote while Sudds received 41.8 per cent.
Before Sudds won in 2021, Kanata-Carleton was held by Liberal Karen McCrimmon, who won in 2019 and before that in 2015. After declining to run federally in 2021, McCrimmon won the byelection for the provincial riding of Kanata-Carleton in July 2023 and sat as an MPP. The Constance Bay resident was re-elected in February’s provincial election.
Who are the candidates running in the Kanata riding?
A former federal government economist and executive director of two business associations, Sudds was in former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet. She served as minister of families, children and social development until the March 14 cabinet shuffle following Carney’s swearing-in as Trudeau’s replacement. Sudds, 46, is married and is the mother of three daughters. She lives in Kanata.
Her Conservative rival is candidate Greg Kung, a full-time paramedic serving the Ottawa Valley. Kung was also a senior advisor to Conservative finance ministers Jim Flaherty and Joe Oliver. Kung has been on the boards of Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre, the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa Foundation and the Ontario Paramedic Association. He lives in West-Carleton with his wife and their two dogs.
Running for the Green Party is Jennifer Purdy, a Kanata-raised physician and mother of young triplets. She served in the Canadian Armed Forces for more than 23 years and was posted as a family physician in Trenton, Petawawa and Ottawa before she opened a medical clinic in Kanata. She has run twice federally for the Green Party, in 2019 and 2021, and she ran in the most recent provincial election.
A candidate for the NDP has yet to enter the race. The Elections Canada deadline for candidates is April 7.
The People’s Party of Canada candidate is Viktoria Zaniewska. The party’s website does not give any biographical details for her, but says she “stands for the core values of freedom, personal responsibility, respect, and fairness.”
