John Dance
Voters of Old Ottawa East (OOE) were a key part of incumbent Liberal Catherine McKenna’s dominant victory in the October 2019 federal election, according to recently released poll-by poll data obtained by The Mainstreeter. Runner-up Emilie Taman of the NDP won a number of polls throughout the Ottawa Centre constituency, but none in OOE.
Across all polls in the riding, McKenna won 48 percent of the vote, and in the Old Ottawa East polls, she took 51 percent. Correspondingly, Taman had 29 percent of the total votes cast, but 25 percent of the OOE share.
Liberal Catherine McKenna polled more than 50% of all votes cast in Old Ottawa East polls, more than double her closest opponent, in sweeping to victory in last October’s federal election. Photo by John Dance
Green party candidate Angela Keller-Herzog fared better in OOE than her overall result with eight percent of the vote in our community versus seven percent overall. Conservative candidate Carol Clemenhagen had about 12 percent of the vote both overall and in OOE. Seven other candidates and rejected ballots accounted for the balance of the vote.
Residents of the Lees Avenue apartment buildings did not support McKenna as strongly as elsewhere in OOE, but even in the apartment polls, McKenna received at least 40 percent of the votes cast.
Elsewhere in Ottawa Centre, Taman handily won a number of polls, notably at Carleton University, one of the polls at Old Ottawa South’s Hopewell School and another at the Montgomery Legion on Kent Street. McKenna, Taman and Keller-Herzog all did better than their parties.
McKenna’s results were 15 percent better than the Liberals nationally; Taman was 13 percent better than the national NDP results and Keller-Herzog was about two percent better. However, as has almost always been the case for the Conservatives in Ottawa Centre, Clemenhagen polled far behind her party’s overall national result, which in 2019 was 34 percent of the popular vote, the most of any party.
After her victory, McKenna was reappointed to the federal cabinet, becoming the new Minister of Infrastructure and Communities.
