Ottawa elects 3 new faces including an extra Liberal MPP
Tyler Watt, Catherine McKenney and George Darouze headed to Queen's Park
Ottawans elected three new faces to the provincial legislature on Thursday, one of whom helped the Liberal Party of Ontario grab an extra seat at Queen's Park.
When the election was called, the Liberals held only nine seats across the entire province, and four of those were held by Ottawa Liberal MPPs.
The party retained that quartet of seats on Thursday but also secured a fifth one in the formerly Conservative riding of Nepean thanks to Tyler Watt, a health-care worker.
Watt succeeds Lisa MacLeod of the Progressive Conservatives, who announced in September she wouldn't be running again in her longtime riding.
"I was nervous going into tonight, so I'm just trying to take in how exciting this is," Watt told CBC after he was projected to win. "It's just [a] really incredible experience that I will remember for the rest of my life."
Familiar figures
The other two Ottawa newcomers to the Ontario Legislature are both experienced municipal politicians.
George Darouze, the city councillor for Ottawa's Osgoode ward, reclaimed the provincial Carleton seat for the Progressive Conservatives. Goldie Ghamari had won the riding for the PCs in 2022 but turned Independent last year and didn't run again.
A number of Darouze's cohorts on council joined him at a golf and country club to track the results.
"I'm feeling very humble. I'm very happy," Darouze said, crediting his team for slogging through a winter campaign.
"We [had] people flipping, slipping and falling. It's amazing."
WATCH | Darouze on his victory in Carleton:
Catherine McKenney, the former city councillor for Ottawa's Somerset ward, won the provincial seat of Ottawa Centre for the Ontario New Democratic Party. McKenney takes on the mantle from the NDP's Joel Harden, who will run in the upcoming federal election.
McKenney said they felt a lot of relief once they were declared the winner.
"You know, you work hard. You go to the doors, day in and day out, you talk to people. It always felt good ... but you want the results in and now we have them," McKenney said.
WATCH | McKenney keeps it in the NDP family:
McCrimmon, Pasma returned to office
In Kanata-Carleton, the Liberals' Karen McCrimmon secured her second term. She was first elected to the riding in a 2023 byelection, but only by a small margin, which made her riding one to watch last night.
"I'm grateful to the people ... who have placed their trust [in me] once again," McCrimmon said.
"And I'm grateful for my family. They're the ones who make the sacrifices to allow me to do this. Just a whole lot of gratitude going on here."
During the last general election in 2022, Ottawa West-Nepean incumbent Chandra Pasma of the NDP also took her seat by a relatively small lead, raising the question of whether the party would hold it this time around.
It did, with Pasma besting her opponents.
"We knocked on as many doors as we could," Pasma said. "But of course there's extra challenges when you're doing this in February, from the freezing temperatures to the ice and snow.... We dealt with some slips and falls but we were really happy to have those conversations."
After Thursday night's results, the Liberals emerged with five out of the nine ridings where Ottawa residents cast a ballot, with the PCs and the NDP each garnering two seats.
Stephen Blais helped shore up the Liberals' local fortunes by retaining the Orléans seat, though the results for that race did not get released until after 11 p.m.
With Watt's win in Nepean, the Liberals were the only party to pick up an additional seat.
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With files from Arthur-White Crummey, Emma Weller, Natalia Goodwin, Robyn Miller