This election will see a rematch from former provincial rivals Yasir Naqvi and Joel Harden in this downtown battleground riding.
Quick facts
- Size of the riding: 37 square kilometres
- Population: 126,560 (2021)
- Density: 3,515 people per square kilometre
- Median household income: $85,000
- Median age: 38 (2021)
- Estimated number of electors: 98,124
- Knowledge of official languages: English (57.5 per cent), French (0.7 per cent), English and French (40.3 per cent), neither English nor French (1.4 per cent)
Where is Ottawa Centre?
Covering a large portion of Ottawa’s downtown core and surrounding neighbourhoods, the riding is bounded by the Ottawa River in the north, the Rideau River to the east and the CN Railway line south of Walkley Road. Its westernmost boundary is Fisher Avenue, parts of Carling Avenue and Golden Avenue, meaning a large swath of Ottawa’s west end neighbourhoods are included in the riding.
Ottawa Centre includes Centretown, Parliament Hill, Ottawa City Hall, Dow’s Lake, Little Italy, Chinatown, and also more suburban neighbourhoods in the southern end of the riding, including Mooney’s Bay and Billings Bridge.
The riding also includes Carleton University and some of its associated student neighbourhoods. The riding is bordered by Ottawa West — Nepean to the west, Ottawa — Vanier — Gloucester to the east, as well as Ottawa South.
2021 federal election results
- Liberal: 33,549 (45.2 per cent)
- NDP: 24,258 (32.7 per cent)
- Conservative: 12,073 (16.3 percent)
- Green: 2,074 (2.8 per cent)
- People’s Party: 1,659 (2.2 per cent)
Evening Update
Recent electoral history
Ottawa Centre has long been a Liberal-NDP battleground riding, with a Conservative holding the seat only once, from 1978 until 1979.
Federally, the riding has been a Liberal stronghold since Justin Trudeau’s “red wave” in 2015, when Catherine McKenna flipped the riding from the NDP. McKenna was the minister of environment and climate change from 2015 to 2019, and minister of infrastructure and communities from 2019 until 2021.
For a decade prior to 2015, Ottawa Centre was a seat held by NDP heavyweights Ed Broadbent and Paul Dewar.
The riding is poised for another Liberal-NDP showdown in 2025, with Liberal Yasir Naqvi, who was elected in 2021, trying to keep his seat against former NDP MPP Joel Harden, who represented the riding at Queen’s Park from 2018 until 2025.
It will be a rematch of the 2018 provincial election, when Harden unseated Naqvi as the riding’s provincial representative.
Who are the candidates running in Ottawa Centre?
Yasir Naqvi is the incumbent Liberal candidate for the riding. He has been the riding’s MP since 2021, and before that, he represented the area provincially from 2007 until 2018.
Joel Harden is the NDP candidate after two stints as the provincial representative for the area. Before politics, he was a labour advocate and researcher and taught law at Carleton University.
Amanda Rosenstock is the Green Party’s candidate for Ottawa Centre. She first ran for the Greens in Toronto during the 2021 federal election, moving to Ottawa shortly thereafter. She is a policy analyst and has focused on clean technology and sustainable transportation.
Paul d’Orsonnens is running for the Conservative Party. He served 35 years in the Canadian Armed Forces and calls himself a “common sense conservative candidate who will bring practical results to make life more affordable and our communities safe.”
Marie-Chantal Leriche is the candidate for Christian Heritage. Cashton Perry is the Communist candidate. Marty Simms is running for the People’s Party of Canada. Andrea Chabot is running for the Canadian Future Party.
