Election 2019 Ottawa Centre
Election 2019!
The federal election is expected on Monday, October 21. Thus far, the Ottawa Centre candidates identified by the Glebe Report (although to date, not all have filed their papers) include, in alphabetical order:
- Shelby Bertrand, Animal Protection Party of Canada
- Carol Clemenhagen , Conservative Party of Canada
- Coreen Corcoran, Libertarian Party of Canada
- Angela Keller-Herzog, Green Party of Canada
- Catherine McKenna, Liberal Party of Canada (incumbent)
- Adam Rolston, National Citizens Alliance
- Stuart Ryan, Communist Party of Canada
- Merylee Sevilla, People’s Party of Canada
- Emilie Taman, New Democratic Party of Canada
Seven of the nine candidates thus far are women.
The last federal election took place in October 2015. In Ottawa Centre, NDP Paul Dewar, the incumbent, lost to Liberal Catherine McKenna in a high-turnout close vote, McKenna earning about 32,200 votes (43 per cent) and Dewar about 29,100 (39 per cent).
The voter turnout was extraordinary: 82 per cent of the 91,625 residents who were registered to vote in Ottawa Centre cast ballots, one of the highest turnouts in the country. (Across Canada, voter turnout averaged 68.5 per cent, itself a sharp increase from the previous election in 2011 with 61.1 per cent turnout.) Let’s hope the turnout trend continues!
Ottawa Centre, created as a riding in 1966, includes the Glebe, Old Ottawa South, Old Ottawa East, Centretown, Lebreton Flats, Mechanicsville, Hintonburg and Westboro.
Brief bios of candidates
(Information available at date of publication)
Shelby Bertrand has recently resigned after six years in the civil service to pursue a career in academia and animal rights. She is now completing graduate studies at the University of Ottawa, where she is a member of the University of Ottawa Animal Rights Association. She works to raise awareness about other issues alongside animal rights, such as chronic illness and women’s rights.
Carol Clemenhagen was president and CEO of the Canadian Hospital Association and executive director of the Medical Research Council of Canada (now the Canadian Institutes of Health Research). She began her career in health care at the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Born in Buckingham, Québec, Clemenhagen holds a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Ottawa and a bachelor of arts in political science and sociology from Carleton University. She lives in the Civic hospital area.
Coreen Corcoran is a technical writer, business analyst and entrepreneur with degrees from Carleton University and Athabaska University. She has lived in the U.S. and U.K., and now lives in Beacon Hill. She ran in the Ottawa-Vanier riding in the 2015 election.
Angela Keller-Herzog, driven by a desire to create a more livable, prosperous and equitable world, is running for the Green Party. She is married with two teenage kids and lives in Ottawa Centre. She is an economist (M.A. Economics, Carleton ’94), and has worked in the non-profit sector, the service economy and the private sector as an economic consultant, manager and business owner, as well as 15 years at the Canadian International Development Agency. She now runs an eco-friendly bed and breakfast.
Catherine McKenna was elected in 2015 as the first female Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre and appointed Minister of Environment and Climate Change. A mom of three, McKenna is a long-time resident of the Glebe. She previously worked as a lawyer in Canada and Indonesia, was a negotiator with the UN mission in East Timor, taught at the Munk School of Global Affairs and co-founded Level Justice, a charitable organization. She holds degrees from U of T, the London School of Economics and McGill Law.
Adam Rolston — no information available to date.
Stuart Ryan, a long-time Ottawa resident, has run for the Communist Party several times at the federal and provincial levels. He was the president of a local chapter of the Canadian Auto Workers. He studied at Carleton and Queen’s universities and is the father of two.
Merylee Sevilla is an advocate for Canadian rights, and of freedom of speech and thought, while preserving respect and tolerance amongst the diverse communities and cultures that make up Canada. Born in Vancouver, she moved to Ottawa at 18 to study psychology at Carleton University. With over a decade of government experience, Sevilla wants to bring back hope and demonstrate the possibilities of having a candidate who can relate to the struggles of being a taxpayer, a homeowner and a Canadian. As a founding member of the People’s Party of Canada, she has been a proponent of Maxime Bernier and his vision of bringing Canada back to Canadians.
Emilie Taman is a former federal crown prosecutor, law professor and community activist who is driven to build a fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable world. She believes growing inequality, the climate crisis and the spread of racism, intolerance and hate require substantive action and the courage to challenge the status quo. She has lived in Ottawa Centre with her spouse and three children for more than 12 years.
