A formerly safe Liberal seat, Glengarry — Prescott — Russell has voted Progressive Conservative in the last two provincial elections.
Quick Facts
- Area: 2,909 square kilometres
- Population: 116,463 (2021)
- Density: 40 people per square kilometre
- Median household income: $95,000 (2020)
- Median age: 45.6 (2021)
- Knowledge of official languages: English (26.9 per cent), French (8.5 per cent), English and French (64.5 per cent), neither English nor French (0.2 per cent)
Where is Glengarry — Prescott — Russell located?
The riding sits largely to the east of Ottawa, the Ottawa River forming its northern border, and stretches to the Quebec border in the east. It consists of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, and the part of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry comprised of the Township of North Glengarry. Additionally, it encompasses parts of Ottawa east of Orléans. The riding includes Clarence-Rockland, Russell, Cumberland, Navan, Embrun, Casselman and Hawkesbury.
What is the recent electoral history of this riding?
Glengarry — Prescott — Russell was created in 1996 from parts of two ridings: Prescott and Russell, and Stormont — Dundas — Glengarry and East Grenville. It was first contested in 1999, when Liberal Jean-Marc Lalonde, at the time MPP for Prescott and Russell, won the seat with more than half of the vote.
The seat remained safely Liberal for nearly 20 years. Lalonde held it until 2011 when he decided not to run in that year’s election. It was subsequently won and held for two terms by Liberal Grant Crack. Crack stepped down in 2018, and in that year’s provincial election, Progressive Conservative candidate Amanda Simard prevailed, flipping the seat with 41 per cent of the vote, almost 10 points ahead of the second-place finisher, Liberal candidate Pierre Leroux.
Evening Update
A critic of some of her own party’s policies regarding French-language services, Simard resigned from the Tory caucus later that year and sat as an Independent until 2020, when she joined the Liberal party’s ranks. In the most recent provincial election, in 2022, Simard failed to hold her seat, falling to Conservative candidate Stéphane Sarrazin by 1,132 votes. Sarrazin won 42 per cent of the vote, while Simard claimed 39.5 per cent. Overall, only 45.56 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2022, the lowest turnout in the riding’s history.
Who’s running in Glengarry — Prescott — Russell?
Two candidates have so far entered the race to unseat Progressive Conservative incumbent Stéphane Sarrazin. The NDP, which has never fared better than third in the riding, has not yet nominated a candidate.
A former mayor of Alfred and Plantagenet, and warden of Prescott and Russell United Counties, Sarrazin has served since last March as parliamentary assistant to both the Associate Minister of Small Business and the Minister of Francophone Affairs. For nearly two years previously, he served as parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Energy. Heading into the 2022 election, Sarrazin cited the widening of Hwy. 174 from Rockland to Ottawa and the expansion of high-speed internet and natural gas infrastructure as issues of local concern.
Running for the Liberal Party of Ontario is Trevor Stewart, who was born and raised in Hammond. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Conflict Studies and Human Rights at uOttawa and has since worked on Parliament Hill as Liberal MP Francis Drouin. In 2022, at just 23, he was elected to Clarence-Rockland’s city council, where he represents the villages of Hammond and Cheney. He has, since 2021, additionally worked as executive assistant to Francis Drouin, Liberal MP for the federal riding of Glengarry — Prescott — Russell.
Environmental activist Thaila Riden is running for the Green Party of Ontario. An East Hawkesbury resident, Riden is a board member of the Vankleek Hill Nature Society, president of the non-profit ECO East, and operates The Grand Barn Community Garden Club. He ran for the Greens in this riding in 2022, coming in fifth place with 1,670 votes, just under four per cent of the total number cast.
