London West

This riding covers the western and northwestern reaches of London, Ontario, taking in the established neighbourhoods of Byron, Oakridge, and Westmount along the Thames River, as well as newer suburban developments extending toward Wonderland Road. The constituency blends older residential areas with commercial strips and green corridors that follow the Thames through the western half of the city.

Candidates

Kate Young (Liberal) — A veteran broadcast journalist, Young spent seventeen years as a news anchor at CFPL-TV (CTV London), where she was hired in 1985 as the station's first female anchor. She co-anchored the flagship evening newscast and was a well-recognized figure in the London community before entering politics.

Ed Holder (Conservative) — The incumbent MP since 2008, Holder had previously served as president of Stevenson and Hunt Insurance Brokers and sat on the board of the London Chamber of Commerce. In 2014, he was appointed Minister of State for Science and Technology in the Harper government. He notably declined to attend several candidates' debates during the 2015 campaign.

Matthew Rowlinson (NDP) — A professor of English at Western University, Rowlinson specialized in nineteenth-century British literature and the relationship between literature and economics. He had served as chair of graduate studies in his department.

Dimitri Lascaris (Green Party) — A securities class-action lawyer, Lascaris was a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and had begun his career at the Wall Street firm Sullivan and Cromwell. He had practised at Siskinds LLP in London, where his team recovered more than $450 million in class-action settlements.

Jacques Y. Boudreau (Libertarian) and Michael Lewis (Communist) also appeared on the ballot.

About the Riding

London West is home to many of London's more affluent neighbourhoods, with Byron's tree-lined streets along the Thames River and the Sifton Bog nature reserve giving the area a semi-rural character despite its urban setting. The riding's economy draws on the city's broader health-care, insurance, and education sectors, with many residents commuting to employment centres elsewhere in the city. By 2015, London was in the midst of an economic transition as traditional manufacturing declined and the technology and digital creative industries expanded, a shift that resonated with suburban professionals and young families across the riding's newer subdivisions.