Ottawa Centre Election guide 2021 – Website updated September 17. 2021

Who’s running?

There are eight candidates for election as Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre. They are (alphabetically):

Shelby Bertrand
Animal Protection Party

Carol Clemenhagen
Conservative Party (votecarol.ca)

Richard (Rich) Joyal
Independent (rich4ottawacentre.ca)

Angela Keller-Herzog
Green Party (voteangela.ca)

Angella MacEwan
NDP (angellaforottawa.ca)

Alex McDonald
Communist Party (votecommunist.com/ottawa-centre-alex-mcdonald/)

Yasir Naqvi
Liberal Party (yasirnaqvi.ca)

Regina Watteel
People’s Party (peoplespartyofcanada.ca/regina_watteel)

What they say

The Glebe Report has attempted to contact all candidates to invite them to make a statement. The statements we received appear in these pages.

At press time, we had not received statements from Rich Joyal (independent) or Alex McDonald (Communist Party).

When and where to vote?

Voting day is Monday, September 20. You will need to show I.D. You can vote at your polling place – it is identified on the voter information card mailed to you, or you can look it up by postal code on the Elections Canada website: elections.ca.

You can also vote in advance at your polling place on September 10, 11, 12 or 13.

Or you can vote in person before September 14 at any Elections Canada Office. The main Ottawa Centre office is at Killeany Place, 150 Isabella Street, Suite 400. Toll-free phone 1-866-275-1649.

Or you can vote by mail if you apply before September 14, using a form available on the Elections Canada website: elections.ca.

Shelby Bertrand,
Animal Protection Party of Canada

My name is Shelby Bertrand. I’m the Ottawa Centre candidate for the Animal Protection Party of Canada (APPC). We are North America’s first political party to bring animal rights into mainstream political discussion.

APPC grew from a private animal rescue organization concerned with conservation efforts and wildlife relocation. We later became a federal party and now have a robust platform with positions on domains such as healthcare, education, indigenous issues and the economy. By no means a “one-issue party,” only APPC gives attention to animal rights, but it’s not only animal rights that APPC gives attention to. APPC believes in education as a public investment that should be fully funded in both academic fields and trades. APPC supports electoral reform and if elected, it would institute a single transferable vote proportional representation system. APPC also supports universal basic income.

APPC is prepared more than any other political party to give the environment the overdue attention it deserves. For too long, politicians have been rewarded for environmental talk but no action. For too long, the misinformation and self-interest of leaders have stifled change. Now our window of opportunity for this change is closing. We face a new level of urgency with our climate, resources and the wellbeing of future generations. Environmentalism as a movement traditionally demands change solely from consumers. It’s neither realistic nor fair to all consumers to put lifestyle change in their hands.

As a candidate for APPC, I personally want to forward our mission of freeing environmentalism from its history as a consumer-dependent movement. I would strive to hold Canada’s institutional framework accountable for its part in the change needed by people, the planet and everything we share it with.

Carol Clemenhagen
Conservative Party of Canada

Voters were not dreaming of elections. Post-COVID economic recovery is the priority I hear most. We all want a return to prosperity and a safe, healthy future.

The Conservative Recovery Plan rebuilds our economy with jobs, growth and responsible management.

As President & CEO of the Canadian Hospital Association, I saw the impact inadequate federal health transfers have on local health care. We need to advance federal-provincial collaboration to future-proof our health system.

The Conservative Recovery Plan increases growth for health transfers to at least six per cent from the three-per-cent floor now. Unconditional transfers provide flexibility to strengthen our community’s hospitals and health care for a growing and aging population.

Canada’s investment in research must also step up to retain our great scientists and attract next-generation innovators with tax incentives for innovative products they develop here.

Increasing housing supply is critical. Our recovery plan commits to building one million houses in three years and incentivizes building rental housing. Getting housing built is a priority I will focus on if elected.

A new Canadian Seniors Care Benefit of $200 per month for seniors living with their children, and a refundable Child Care Tax Credit for up to 75 per cent of costs will provide much needed relief for families.

It is tough for entrepreneurs emerging from the pandemic. The Conservative Job Surge will help businesses recover by covering 25 to 50 per cent of salaries for new hires for six months. Simplifying taxes and better targeted regulations will restore confidence and attract investment. Ottawa Centre’s member of Parliament needs to seek advice on a regular basis from the local Business Improvement Areas.

Ottawa Centre’s comfortable and generally safe neighbourhoods are not immune to vandalism, violence or hate-motivated incidents. Our recovery plan supports infrastructure for safe communities and more community policing, including programs to keep youth out of gangs.

The independently analyzed Conservative Plan to combat climate change delivers emissions reductions that meet Canada’s targets and commitments in the Paris Accord. That includes increasing green infrastructure, protecting green spaces, and planting more trees in Ottawa Centre. As urban intensification grows, so must our urban forests.

Our plan’s fast-track federal infrastructure investments will maximize economic benefits and support priorities like the new Civic hospital construction, renovating long-term care facilities, public transit links to where people live and recreation facilities.

The Conservative Recovery Plan responds to our community’s needs. On Sept. 20, I ask for your vote to Secure the Future.

Angela Keller-Herzog
Green Party of Canada

Dear Glebe Neighbours:

I am proud of the way our community has come together during the pandemic. Further big challenges lie ahead. I am running as the Green Party candidate to give voice to important issues and explore transformational change. Elsewhere I have written about how climate change and biodiversity, fairness and accountability are motivating me to run (see my platform at voteangela.ca/priorities).

I will focus this piece in my “home” newspaper on my most personal political concern. I came to Canada at the age of 11, the daughter of German immigrants. It was as a teenager that I learned of the Holocaust. A survivor came to speak at our school. This was not something we had discussed at home. The revelation was destabilizing, causing me to question my own identity and human nature itself.

More recently, I learned about the genocide being perpetrated here in Canada against Indigenous peoples. Disturbing does not begin to describe the findings of the Panel on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the thousands of unmarked graves of Indigenous children, the suicide and incarceration rates of Indigenous people. Not to mention the numbers of kids in foster care, and the quality of life in many communities.

I have grieved with my neighbour, Reverend Teresa Burnett-Cole at Glebe St. James. From door-to-door canvassing, I know that many of you want to continue the work on Truth and Reconciliation.

This is a political issue that must be a part of this federal election. Now is the time for healing and developing a real relationship with Indigenous peoples. We need nation-to-nation dialogues where we learn from their teachings on how to build community, practise respect and bring our relationship with nature and our ecosystem back into balance. We must continue to explore the truth, not only because that is just and that is what our conscience demands but also because it will make us stronger as a people and is a pathway to address the existential crises of climate change and biodiversity.

I have lived in the Glebe on unceded Algonquin territory for over 30 years. I am honoured to have raised my kids, operated a small business and worked on environmental issues with the Glebe Community Association and Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) here. I believe that together we can build a better community and a better country.

Angella MacEwen
New Democratic Party of Canada

Fighting for you and our most vulnerable in Ottawa

Greenspaces being bulldozed for parking lots in a climate crisis, families and young people being priced out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in and so many of our neighbours unable to access the medication they need – this is the current state of affairs in our city and country, and it cannot continue this way.

For too long, we’ve allowed the status quo to continue without demanding better. But the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that we can make different choices and demand better for us and our most vulnerable neighbours.

We can demand that our governments are taking the bold action that is needed to address the climate crisis instead of buying a pipeline. The New Democratic Party (NDP) has committed to ending all fossil-fuel subsidies and setting a target of reducing Canada’s emissions by at least 50 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

We can demand that our governments are investing in affordable, non-market and co-op housing that is deeply affordable, like the NDP has committed to doing. We will partner with provinces and municipalities to build 500,000 units of affordable housing in the next ten years alone, and in the short-term we will provide immediate rent relief for families in Ottawa Centre that are struggling to afford rent.

And we can demand our governments take real action instead of empty words on reconciliation, by committing to full implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.

These are not just national issues. Committing to bold solutions to address our society’s biggest challenges has immediate and direct impacts in our city. As MP for Ottawa Centre, I will fight to ensure our valuable greenspaces and trees are protected from developers who want to bulldoze them into parking lots; fight for local input in housing decisions, like a Community Benefits Agreement for LeBreton Flats; and work with local Indigenous communities in asserting their land rights, protecting the Ottawa River from nuclear waste and much more.

As an economist, I know that budgets are about choices, and we can start making better choices that put people before profits.

That’s why I put my name on the ballot to run for the NDP in Ottawa Centre. Because the NDP is the only party that’s proposing the bold solutions we need to address our housing and climate crisis and will tax the ultra rich to make it happen.

I know we can do better, Ottawa, for our planet and our most vulnerable.

Join me, and let’s fight for better.

Yasir Naqvi
Liberal Party of Canada

Building a better community for everyone — Together

It is such a pivotal time for Canada, and Ottawa Centre deserves an MP who knows our community’s issues and values and who has the track record to deliver on them.

Climate change is the greatest threat of our time. Like many parents, my children are my main priority. I will fight for stronger climate action to ensure they live in a world with a healthy environment. Our Liberal government has taken drastic action to cut pollution – more than any other government in Canadian history. As part of the Ontario Liberal government, I delivered on phasing out coal-fired electricity plants, which achieved the single largest greenhouse gas reduction in North America. I delivered on the Ottawa River Action Plan, providing us with a swimmable, drinkable and fishable Ottawa River. And I helped provide clean transportation through investments in the LRT and the Flora Footbridge. As your MP, I will work tirelessly to further strengthen the government’s climate action. I have a Climate Action Plan for Ottawa Centre, one that will make Ottawa the greenest capital in the world. I will improve walking, cycling, rolling infrastructure and our air quality while also expanding our greenspace and protecting the urban tree canopy. These actions – and more – will make Ottawa a cleaner and healthier place to live.

I will also work to double the number of new affordable and accessible homes currently funded in Ottawa Centre. I will also seek investment in energy efficient retrofits of existing community housing. This will help families, new Canadians, young people, people experiencing homelessness, and women and children fleeing violence to find a safe and affordable home.

Canadians have the right to feel safe at home, at work, at school and on the street. We must work together to eliminate systemic racism and fight back against the injustices that BIPOC and the LGBTQ2 communities are experiencing every day. I commit to use my privilege and experience to put inclusion at the centre of our public policy with a diverse public service and to work towards ending racial profiling in federal law enforcement across Canada.

I know our neighbourhoods, I have the community connections, and I have the track record of delivering for our Ottawa Centre residents. As your MP, I am committed to use my experience and determination to represent our progressive values and to ontinue delivering on our priorities.

I hope to earn your vote by September 20.

Yasir

Regina Watteel
People’s Party of Canada

I would be honoured to represent the riding of Ottawa Centre, to ensure YOUR voices are heard. To hold the line and stop the degradation of our rights and freedoms and to ensure our children have a promising, inclusive future.

The Glebe is well-known for its charm and character: family-oriented with a strong sense of community where inclusiveness is fostered, lively and active with its parks and sport facilities and dotted with independently owned businesses. The university attracts students into the area every year.

But much has changed over the term of the current federal administration. Like other neighbourhoods across the nation, federally backed lockdowns and heavy-handed measures have suffocated local businesses. Mental-health problems linger as residents and their families deal with instability, job loss, loneliness and separation from loved ones. Looming vaccine passports bring discrimination and segregation to the forefront in new forms. For example, privileged access by race, religion and other vaccine hesitancy factors to education, restaurant dining, recreation, jobs and travel. Homeless shelters operating at reduced capacities have put more homeless on the streets, while others are whisked away from the services they depend on. Opioid overdoses have risen to new heights.

THIS MUST STOP. NOW.

We need to bring this country together and call upon the values that make us strong. Respect, Fairness, Freedom, and Responsibility are the four pillars of the People’s Party of Canada. We understand that our government is there to serve YOU, while respecting your fundamental rights and freedoms.

We need to scrap the “new normal” that gives government enormous control and stifles positive growth, and we will end irresponsible spending. We must give people back their voices and livelihoods, allow you and your family to thrive and achieve your dreams, big and small.

I look forward to the opportunity to serve your vibrant community and immerse myself into what has made it a model success, while putting my skills to work. I have extensive experience in program evaluation and risk-benefit analysis. I understand the need for smart, strategic solutions, where benefits outweigh negatives and where the needs of each member of the community are duly considered.

As a mother of three, I am ready to fight for a strong and free future for all our children. That is why I stand with the People’s Party of Canada.

Please vote PPC.

Regina Watteel, PhD
email: reginawatteelppc@gmail.com