Orléans residents are expected to go to the polls once again this spring as a federal election call was expected any time this week.
The ink has barely dried on the provincial election ballots and another campaign is set to begin as the Conservative Party of Canada tries to wrestle control of the House of Commons from the Liberals who have served as a minority government since September 2021.
A lot has changed since then. Most notably is the fact that both the two major parties have new leaders. In 2021, the Conservative Party was led by Erin O’Toole who was ousted during a subsequent leadership review and replaced by Pierre Poilievre who won the position on the first ballot.
Liberal leader Mark Carney was also elected on the first ballot when party members voted for a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 9.
The NDP, Green Party and Bloc Quebecois are all being led by the same people who ran in 2021. This will be Jagmeet Singh’s third federal election as the leader of the NDP party, while Elizabeth May has been at the helm of the federal Green Party for 16 of the past 19 years. Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet was first elected in January 2019.
According to the most recent Ipsos Canada poll taken between Feb. 21 and Feb. 24, the Liberal Party had a two point advantage over the Conservatives heading into the election. The latest Leger survey taken between March 7 and March 10 had the two parties in a virtual dead heat.
Locally, Liberal incumbent Marie-France Lalonde will be hoping to serve a third term in office after first winning the seat in 2019 and again in 2021 when she received 52 per cent of the vote compared to her Conservative rival, Mary-Elsie Wolfe, who won 39 per cent of the vote.
As of press time on Saturday, the Conserv-ative Orléans Electoral District Association was expected to announce a new candidate at any time.
The NDP candidate is Oulai B. Goué whose LinkedIn profile lists him as market-ing communications entrepreneur.
According to his profile on the NDP website, Goué is focused on finding ways to fix the mental health and long-term care crisis in Canada through a community-based home-care model. He also believes the government should invest more in public and affordable housing for moderate-income households, introduce a temporary VAT/GST reduction on essential groceries and adopt a two-day hybrid work in office for federal employees wherever possible.
The Green Party has yet to name their candidate.
Although Orléans is often considered a bellwether riding, it has only been held by the Conservatives once in the past 25 years.
Royal Galipeau won the seat by just 1,200 votes over Liberal incumbent Marc Godbout in the 2006 federal election. A former Liberal who had volunteered for former Liberal MP Eugene Bellemare, Galipeau was trailing Godbout for most of the night until the advance poll ballots were counted which put him over the top.
Only two other Conservatives have repre-sented Orléans in the House of Commons since 1900 – Barry Turner from 1984-1988 and Jean Pigott from 1976-1979.
ORLEANS FARMERS MARKET every Thursday from 11 am to 4 pm in the parking lot at the Ray Friel Recreation Centre on Tenth Line Road. Shop the freshest seasonal produce, meat and dairy, baked goods, prepared foods, crafts and more while getting to know the folks who grew and made it.
STATION 71 PANCAKE BREAKFAST from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Fire Station 71 in Navan with a freewill donation to the CHEO Foundation. Come enjoy pancakes with local maple syrup Erabliere des Wats Sugar Bush, local coffee from Papa Bean coffee roastery, and sausages and bacon from Lavergne Meat. After breakfast check out the Navan Fall Fest at the Navan Fairgrounds.
