“What an honour. I am so grateful to the people of Ottawa West for putting their trust in me once again,” Pasma told the crowded pub.
The NDP’s Chandra Pasma handily defeated four contenders to retain her seat in Ottawa West-Nepean on Thursday night.
The incumbent prevailed convincingly over candidates who were running for office for the first time, namely Progressive Conservative candidate Husien Abu-Rayash, Liberal hopeful Brett Szmul, the Green Party’s Sophia Andrew-Joiner and Rylan Vroom of the New Blue Party.
Shortly after 9:30 p.m., a half-hour after polls closed, Pasma was declared the winner. Until then, as the votes were being tallied, Pasma consistently held a 50-per-cent share of the votes cast, more than the combined votes of her Conservative and Liberal rivals.
With 55 of 67 polls reporting, Pasma had 19,787 votes while Abu-Rayash was second with 11, 255 votes. Szmul had 6,985 votes while neither Andrew-Joiner nor Vroom had more than 1,000 votes.
At the Barley Mow on Merivale Road, dozens of NDP supporters greeted Pasma with loud cheers when she arrived shortly before 10 p.m.
“What an honour. I am so grateful to the people of Ottawa West for putting their trust in me once again,” Pasma told the crowded pub.
“Together, our community has rejected Doug Ford’s bad deals and his wasteful scandals and they have instead opted for a hopeful, positive vision of our province,” she said. “A province where everyone has a family doctor and gets the healthcare that they need, a province where everyone has a home they can afford and can put groceries on the table. A home where all of our children have a safe, healthy school and the supports that they need to learn. Where we stand together and build a more resilient province.”
Evening Update
On his LinkedIn account, Abu-Rayash described himself as “a lifelong Conservative and community leader with over 10 years of political organizing and volunteering experience.” He has a bachelor’s degree in public administration and governance from Toronto Metropolitan University. His profile on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, describes him as “a proud father of four daughters and one son, raising his children in Nepean” and a former reservist officer with the Canadian Armed Forces.
In January, Abu-Rayash sought the PC nomination in the riding of Nepean, after its incumbent, long-time MPP Lisa MacLeod, decided not to run for re-election. But Abu-Rayash wound up running in the neighbouring riding of Ottawa West-Nepean.
Liberal candidate Szmul is a student at Carleton University pursuing a master’s degree in international affairs.
Both Abu-Rayash and Andrew-Joiner skipped the Rogers TV debate for Ottawa West-Nepean candidates. Abu-Rayash also declined to answer an Ottawa Citizen questionnaire sent to all candidates.
Pasma improved on her showing in 2022. That spring, she won a nail-biter when she beat Jeremy Roberts, the PC incumbent, by a little more than 1,000 votes out of more than 91,000 votes cast.
In the 2018 provincial election, it was Roberts who triumphed over Pasma by the narrowest of margins, winning 16,590 votes to Pasma’s 16,415. That year, former Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli ran for the Liberals, but with a tally of 14,810 votes, he trailed behind Roberts and Pasma.
The back-to-back wins for Pasma and the NDP chart a new direction for Ottawa West-Nepean, which was created in 1999.
The provincial riding has voted Liberal for most of its 25-year existence. Jim Watson held the seat from 2003 to 2010, after which the former Ottawa mayor was again elected as the city’s mayor from 2010 to 2022. Chiarelli, who had been Ottawa’s mayor from 2001 to 2006, represented Ottawa West-Nepean provincially from 2010 to 2018.
Two Progressive Conservatives have represented the riding — Gary Guzzo from 1999 to 2003 and Roberts from 2018 to 2022.
At the federal, Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld has held the seat for Ottawa West-Nepean since 2015.
According to the 2021 census, the riding was then home to 116,409 people, of whom nine out of 10 are English speakers. Bordered by the Ottawa River and Hunt Club Road, Kanata and Bells Corners and the Rideau River, the riding is largely suburban, but also rural communities to the west. It is home to the Queensway-Carleton Hospital and Algonquin College’s main campus.
