Ottawa South candidates say more affordable housing is needed in the riding

Ottawa South has been Liberal for almost as long as anyone can remember. Since its creation in 1988 until 2004, the riding was held by Liberal MP John Manley. Then it was taken over by current incumbent MP David McGuinty. 

The riding most likely was never at risk of being lost by the Liberals, but McGuinty has seen his support increase since Mark Carney was elected as the new party leader; he went from a projected 50 per cent of the vote in March, according to 338 Canada, to a projected 62 per cent now. Conservative candidate Blair Turner is currently in second place at a projected 27 per cent, and NDP candidate Hena Masjedee in third at seven per cent. 

McGuinty for the most part has served as a backbencher MP throughout his tenure. He served as chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians from 2017 until 2024, and was promoted to Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness by Carney on  March 14. 

Ottawa South’s McGuinty did not respond to the Lookout’s multiple requests for an interview. 

Conservative candidate Turner is focusing a major part of his platform on public safety. He was a reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces before becoming a police officer in 2006. 

“I'm not happy and a lot of Canadians are not happy with the soft-on-crime policies, with the revolving door justice system that we have, and I use that term justice loosely, right? It's more of a judicial system. And, it's very frustrating,” Turner told Lookout. “I see the same violent offenders over and over and over over again. Automobile insurance has skyrocketed because of the auto theft epidemic.”

A concern is also the cost of living. Tuner said he’s knocked on 56,000 doors and regularly hears how people are struggling to make ends meet. As a father to a six and 10-year-old, he’s concerned about his kids’ futures. 

“The younger generation, those who are between 18 and 30-years-old, unemployment is very high. They are struggling to find a career job,” said Turner. “Rent has more than doubled over the last 10 years. Pierre Poilievre has spoken many times about his platform of eliminating GST on new homes valued $1.3 million below. There's an abundance of federal land and property. We need to sell some of that off to developers for lower income supply and demand.”

Turner referenced the Ottawa Food Bank, which has needed to cut the amount of food it gives 98 local agencies from 20 to 50 per cent. He spoke to a single dad of three young boys who was selling his house because he was unable to keep up with all the rising costs. 

NDP candidate Masjedee also said affordability is a concern. She decided to run because the Liberals and Conservatives just like to fight one another, and would instead like to see effort put into representing constituents' concerns. 

“I went to the grocery store yesterday and a jug of orange juice was $14. I wasn't going to buy it anyway because of Florida oranges and we were boycotting. But just seeing that price increase is crazy and a lot of people who are already living paycheck to paycheck are going to suffer,” said Masjedee. “I think it's the government's responsibility to make sure that Canadians are taken care of. During the pandemic, the last crisis of this size that we saw, the liberals wanted to do $1,000 dollars a month and in the end the NDP pushed them to make that $2,000 a month, which is a little bit more livable.”

Another topic on Masjedee’s mind is the war in the Middle East. She said this is particularly a topic of interest to Ottawa South voters because about 25,000 Muslims alone live in the riding. 

“I'm a first-generation Canadian. I'm the daughter of immigrants, so it's something that's very important to me because I'm from Afghanistan. I have experience with seeing your country get crushed by the West and having the world do nothing about it,” said the Ottawa South NDP candidate. “The NDP is the only political party that is brave enough at this point to stand up and say, we want an arms embargo, no Canadian weapons to be used in Israel's genocide, we will recognize Palestinian statehood, because there's no solution without that.”

On transit, Masjedee said the current system is horrible and should be free. 

“Getting from Kanata to Orleans is so difficult, and it shouldn't be this much of a hassle, an hour and a half on the bus just to get from one side of your city to the other. I think that while transit is a municipal responsibility, there should be good faith negotiations done at all levels of government, provincial and federal to fund projects to help,” she said. “At the end of the day, that's what it's about to make people’s lives a little bit easier; to make it easier for you to live in your city and enjoy your city. And if the federal government can help with funding, we should. 

Turner was the only candidate the Lookout interviewed who needed to look at his notes and ask his campaign manager for advice when asked certain questions, including on transit. He supports Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s plea for more federal transit funding. 

“Public transit can have a positive environmental impact by reducing the number of vehicles on the roads by cutting down on emissions. It's also central for those who cannot afford the means of transportation,” said Turner. “A Conservative government will collaborate with the province, with the city and other provinces and cities to ensure that our public transit goals are being met, and if federal tax dollars are invested in the systems, we want to ensure that they're used wisely.”

Ottawa South is home to lots of community housing projects, but Masjedee said it’s also been the site of many renovictions, evictions, and demolitions — Herongate being a prime example. She said regulations need to change to reduce red tape. 

“You know, like height sizes, lot sizes, single detached family homes, single family homes, townhomes, where they compete with a nice condo building, or a nice apartment building, where instead of maybe 300 people living in a certain area, you can have 15,500 people living,” she said. “I think deregulation is somewhere where the federal government could help and also using federal land to help build affordable homes, which is part of the NDP platform.”

Turner also thinks bureaucracy should be cut. 

“In the last Parliament, the Conservatives introduced the building homes, not bureaucracy act, which would require cities to build more homes and speed up the rate at which they build homes every year to meet our housing targets. The liberals voted against it,” he said. “It also required that federal transit funding provided for certain cities won't arrive until those stations are surrounded by high density residential buildings. The bill required a report on the inventory of federal buildings of land to identify land suitable for housing construction.”