Nepean

Nepean is a suburban federal riding in the southern portion of the City of Ottawa, covering roughly eighty square kilometres of established residential communities, newer subdivisions, and commercial corridors. The riding takes in Barrhaven — one of Ottawa's fastest-growing suburbs — as well as Centrepointe, Knoxdale-Merivale, and stretches of the Merivale Road and Greenbank Road corridors. Before amalgamation with the City of Ottawa in 2001, Nepean was an independent municipality with its own civic identity.

Candidates

Chandra Arya (Liberal) — Born in Dwaralu, Karnataka, India, in 1963, Arya earned a Bachelor of Engineering and an MBA from Karnatak University. Before entering politics he was an executive in the high-technology sector and served as chairman of the Indo-Canada Ottawa Business Chamber. He immigrated to Canada in 2006 and was first elected to represent Nepean in 2015.

Brian St. Louis (Conservative) — A resident of the Nepean-Barrhaven area, St. Louis worked in public affairs for a mineral development company focused on manufacturing cleaner batteries.

Zaff Ansari (NDP) — An IT entrepreneur and graduate of the University of Ottawa with a master's degree in computer science, Ansari campaigned on affordable childcare and stronger investments in education.

Jean-Luc Cooke (Green Party) — Cooke headed a Bells Corners community association and had run as the Green candidate in Nepean in both 2011 and 2015. In May 2019 he was elected president of the Green Party of Canada.

Azim Hooda ran for the People's Party and Dustan Wang represented the Communist Party.

About the Riding

Barrhaven, the riding's largest community, began as a 1960s suburb built beyond Ottawa's Greenbelt and grew explosively through the 1990s and 2000s with successive waves of new housing subdivisions, schools, and commercial plazas. By 2019 its population had grown dramatically from roughly forty-two thousand residents at the turn of the century. Ben Franklin Place — the former Nepean City Hall in Centrepointe — serves as a government service centre and is home to the Centrepointe Theatre and a branch of the Ottawa Public Library. Merivale Road, running through the riding's eastern portion, is the commercial spine of the old Nepean, lined with retail plazas and restaurants. The riding's economy is heavily shaped by the federal public service, with many residents commuting to downtown Ottawa or to federal offices in the Colonnade Road Business Park. Traffic congestion along Strandherd Drive, Greenbank Road, and Fallowfield Road was a persistent complaint in 2019, amplifying calls for extending Ottawa's light rail transit system into Barrhaven. Healthcare access, childcare availability, and commuter transit frequency were other key local concerns during the campaign.