Ottawa—Vanier

Ottawa—Vanier extends across the eastern portion of Canada's capital, taking in the neighbourhoods of the ByWard Market, Sandy Hill, Vanier, Overbrook, Rockcliffe Park, New Edinburgh, Manor Park, and portions of Beacon Hill-Cyrville and the former city of Gloucester. The riding straddles the Rideau River and encompasses some of Ottawa's most iconic landmarks alongside its most economically challenged streets. Its boundaries reach from the Ottawa River in the north through a mix of urban and inner-suburban territory.

Candidates

Mona Fortier (Liberal) — Born in 1972, Fortier is a University of Ottawa graduate who worked as Chief Director of Communications and Market Development for La Cité collégiale before managing her own strategic communications consulting firm. She served on the boards of the Montfort Hospital, Ontario's Provincial Advisory Committee on Francophone Affairs, and the Shaw Centre, and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. She won the riding in a 2017 by-election—becoming the first woman to represent Ottawa—Vanier—and subsequently served as Minister of Middle-Class Prosperity and President of the Treasury Board.

Lyse-Pascale Inamuco (NDP) — A proud Franco-Ontarian who honours her Burundo-Rwandan origins, Inamuco is a conflict resolution and equity consultant with a degree from the University of Ottawa's Conflict Studies and Human Rights program. She is an award-winning community leader, motivational speaker, and mental health advocate who grew up in the Ottawa—Vanier area and previously worked in a constituency office for a Liberal MPP before joining the NDP.

Heidi Jensen (Conservative) — Jensen is the founder of a trademark consulting and protection firm and a mother of three. She entered politics out of concern for residents facing economic challenges in the riding and volunteered extensively with minor hockey associations in the community.

Jean-Jacques Desgranges (PPC) — Desgranges ran as the People's Party of Canada candidate for Ottawa—Vanier, representing the party's platform of reduced government spending and personal liberty.

About the Riding

Ottawa—Vanier is among the most socioeconomically diverse ridings in the National Capital Region. It contains Rockcliffe Park—historically the wealthiest neighbourhood in Ottawa, home to ambassadorial residences and the Governor General's official residence at Rideau Hall—alongside Vanier, a historically francophone and working-class community that has struggled with poverty, addiction, and underinvestment. The ByWard Market district, one of Ottawa's oldest and most visited commercial areas, sits within the riding, as does the University of Ottawa campus and surrounding student neighbourhoods.

The riding has one of the largest Franco-Ontarian populations in the province. Vanier was a separate city until Ottawa's municipal amalgamation in 2001, and its francophone character—though diminished from roughly 63 percent in the early 1980s to under 40 percent by 2012—remains a defining feature. Nearly one-third of residents reported speaking a language other than English most often at home in the 2021 census, reflecting both the francophone base and the riding's growing immigrant communities from East Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.

Ottawa—Vanier has been one of the most reliably Liberal ridings in Canada, returning Liberal members at both the federal and provincial levels in every election since the riding's creation. Key local issues include affordable housing, homelessness and addiction services in the Vanier and ByWard Market areas, support for francophone institutions, and the integration of newcomer communities. The Montfort Hospital—the only francophone teaching hospital in Ontario—is located within the riding and serves as both a healthcare provider and a symbol of Franco-Ontarian identity.