2025 Incumbent Liberal MP David McGuinty ran again, and was challenged by police officer Blair Turner of the Conservatives. Turner is the son of former Progressive Conservative MP for
Ottawa—Carleton Barry Turner. Running for the NDP was civil servant Hena Masjedee, and the Green candidate was community organizer Nira Dookeran.
2021 Incumbent Liberal MP David McGuinty faced a re-match against local businessman Eli Tannis of the Conservative Party. The NDP ran national security expert
Huda Mukbil. McGuinty easily won re-election with a slightly reduced majority, while the NDP had its strongest federal result in the riding's history, besting its prior high-water mark in 2011.
2019 Incumbent MP David McGuinty ran for re-election, and was challenged by Conservative Eli Tannis, a Lebanese-Canadian entrepreneur, New Democrat Morgan Gay, a community organizer and Green Les Schram, a self employed consultant. Despite winning 5,000 fewer votes than he had four years earlier, he easily held off the challenge from his nearest (Conservative) rival, with more than double the latter's total.
2015 While the Liberals were the third party in Parliament, David McGuinty served as the Liberal Party's critic for Natural Resources (2011–2012), Industry (2013) and the Privy Council Office (2013–2015). He was easily re-elected in 2015 when the Liberals were swept into power. He defeated the Conservative candidate, Dev Balkissoon, a consulting firm owner by over 23,000 votes. Balkissoon was criticized during the campaign for missing an all-candidates debate. The NDP candidate was
George Brown, a former Ottawa City councillor for
Riverside Ward (1985–1994), and the Green candidate was John Redins, a disabilities rights activist.
2011 While in opposition, McGuinty was promoted to the position of the Official Opposition House leader. Once again, he faced and defeated Elie Salibi, the Conservative candidate. McGuinty was one of only 34 Liberals elected to the House of Commons in the election, and both he and Salibi saw a reduction in their percentage of votes. The NDP candidate, James McLaren, a teacher, had the second best (after 2021) performance for the NDP in riding history, despite a mid-campaign controversy regarding comments he made on Facebook.
2008 In opposition, McGuinty served as the Liberal Party's environment critic. He faced nominal opposition from three lesser-known candidates. The Conservative candidate was Elie Salibi, the director of international sales with
Corel, who was born in
Lebanon. The NDP candidate was Hijal De Sarkar, a
Carleton University political science student of
Bengali descent. The Green candidate was Qais Ghanem, a doctor, born in
Yemen. Former Libertarian Party leader
Jean-Serge Brisson also ran, as well as Al Gullon, the Progressive Canadian candidate. Facing lower turnout in the riding itself, as well as nationwide, and a strong lack of enthusiasm for the Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, McGuinty was able to increase his vote total, and his lead over his closest opponent, from the 2006 election. McGuinty just barely missed the 50% mark, but was nonetheless re-elected handily in Ottawa South.
Nomination contests 2006 David McGuinty was re-elected after two years as a Liberal backbencher. The race was expected to be closer than 2004, which it was, as McGuinty faced a tough challenge from Conservative Allan Cutler. Cutler was the
whistleblower in the Liberal
Sponsorship Scandal which saw millions of dollars of public funds transferred to Liberal friendly firms in Quebec during the Chrétien era. The margin of victory between the liberal and his conservative challenger was closer than in 2004, but McGuinty eventually came out on top. Cutler himself was painted as a hypocrite as he would not address the issue of his nomination. Accusations started that 2004 candidate
Alan Riddell was given $50,000 not to stand for nomination in the race. Riddell was also pushed aside in an earlier nomination race that saw former MP
Barry Turner acclaimed, but would later drop out, forcing a new race. Running for the NDP was the
Lebanese-born economist Henri Sader who faced a difficult challenge holding on to the votes that
Monia Mazigh won in the previous election. Running again for Greens again was John Ford who failed to hold on to his votes, and running for the Progressive Canadian Party again was Brad Thomson who lost votes as well. Thomson had all but dropped out however, endorsing McGuinty. The Marijuana Party planned to run Tim Meehan, but he did not gain ballot access.
Nomination contests Barry Turner was acclaimed for the nomination when Allan Riddell, the party's candidate in 2004, withdrew because of allegations about a prank in which he was involved in university. The party later cancelled Turner's nomination and called a new meeting. Turner was not able to get an answer from the party about why the nomination was cancelled, and decided against seeking the nomination again. Allan Cutler announced that he would seek the nomination.
2004 The riding's boundaries had very little change. 99.7% of the riding remained intact, taking 0.3% from Ottawa-Vanier. John Manley retired prior to the 2004 election. He was among a number of high-profile Liberals to retire who were known to be
Jean Chrétien loyalists. David McGuinty, a lawyer and brother of
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, won the Liberal nomination. He was known to be a friend of Prime Minister
Paul Martin. McGuinty faced a steep challenge from Alan Riddell, another lawyer, and Monia Mazigh, the NDP candidate. Riddell, the Conservative candidate, had suffered bad press when it was discovered he had been driving with a suspended license. Mazigh, who lived in
Nepean, was another high-profile candidate, being the wife of
Maher Arar, who was wrongly accused of terrorism. McGuinty suffered too, as his brother's government was unpopular at the time, but in the end was victorious. ^Change from 2000 is not based on redistributed results. Conservative Party change is based on the combination of Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party totals from the 2000 election.
Results by neighbourhood Nomination contests 2000 By 2000, Manley had progressed to
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He defeated Brad Darbyson, the Canadian Alliance candidate, who was an investment counsellor. Finishing in third was engineer Kevin Lister, the Progressive Conservative candidate and native
Albertan. ^ Canadian Alliance change compares to the vote total for the Reform Party candidate in 1997.
1997 Before the 1997 election, the riding changed its boundaries slightly. The old 1987 version encompassed 95% of the new 1996 version. The remaining 5% came from nearby Carleton-Gloucester. John Manley, now the
Minister of Industry was once again re-elected. He faced opposition from the
Somali community in the riding for his indifference to their needs and concerns. This did not have enough impact, however, and Manley won again with another massive majority. He defeated Carla Marie Dancey, the Reform Party candidate who lived outside the riding. Also running was Keith Beardsley, a staffer to MP
Gerry Weiner. Many attribute Manley's victory to attracting business to Ottawa's high tech sector.
1993 Manley was re-elected, as part of a landslide victory for the opposition Liberals. He defeated consulting engineer Doug Walkinshaw of the Reform Party. Joe Anton, the Progressive Conservative candidate, an auditor for
Revenue Canada defeated the former mayor of
Kanata for the Tory nomination. Ursule Critoph, an economist, was the NDP candidate.
1988 Barry Turner was the
Progressive Conservative incumbent MP going into the 1988 election. He had previously been the MP for the
Ottawa—Carleton riding. As an MP, Turner had a reputation as a hard working MP. However, he would end up being defeated by
John Manley, a lawyer with a specialty in tax law. Many attribute the loss to a phone and mail campaign by the
Public Service Alliance of Canada, which was upset at the Progressive Conservative Government's cuts to the civil service. ^ Change based on redistributed results.
Opinion polls 1984 (transposed) == See also ==