Ottawa West—Nepean

Ottawa West—Nepean was one of the most closely watched ridings in the 2022 Ontario election. In 2018, Progressive Conservative Jeremy Roberts had won the seat by just 175 votes over NDP candidate Chandra Pasma, making a rematch between the two virtually inevitable. The riding encompasses suburban communities in Ottawa’s west end, including parts of Nepean, Barrhaven, and Centrepointe, with a significant population of health-care workers and federal public servants.

Health care dominated the local campaign. The riding’s large concentration of nurses, personal support workers, and hospital staff made Bill 124—the provincial wage-restraint legislation capping public-sector raises at one percent—a deeply personal issue for many residents. Roberts ultimately became the only sitting Progressive Conservative MPP to lose his seat in the 2022 election.

Candidates

Chandra Pasma (NDP) — A public policy researcher who had worked for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Pasma brought experience in policy analysis on issues including paramedic services and contract labour in Canadian universities. She had previously served as an advisor to the federal NDP and had worked for Citizens for Public Justice. Pasma had come within 175 votes of winning the riding in 2018.

Jeremy Roberts (Progressive Conservative) — The incumbent MPP since 2018, Roberts held a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. Growing up with a younger brother with autism, he became a prominent advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities at Queen’s Park. Before entering politics, he served as a political assistant to former federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Sam Bhalesar (Liberal) — Bhalesar was a Senior Communications Advisor at the Government of Canada with three decades of political experience. She also served as Secretary for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Steven Warren (Green Party) — At 18 years old, Warren was Ontario’s youngest candidate in the election and the only openly autistic candidate running in the province. His mother was a nurse, reinforcing his focus on health-care issues.

Vilteau Delvas ran for the Ontario Party.

Local Issues

Health care was the defining issue in Ottawa West—Nepean. The riding’s older population and its large community of health-care workers placed recruitment, compensation, and retention of hospital staff, long-term care workers, and home-care providers squarely at the centre of the campaign. Residents reported difficulty accessing family doctors, with some noting that multiple colleagues had recently lost their family physicians and struggled to find replacements. The Ford government’s Bill 124, which capped public-sector wage increases at one percent annually, was widely criticized by nurses and health-care unions as contributing to staffing shortages.

The cost of living also figured prominently in door-to-door canvassing. Rising housing prices across Ottawa had hit suburban communities in the riding, while long-term care capacity and the pandemic’s impact on seniors’ facilities remained sources of concern. The riding was also affected by the devastating derecho storm that struck eastern Ontario on May 21, 2022—just days before the election—bringing winds up to 190 km/h, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of Ottawa residents, and underscoring concerns about infrastructure resilience and emergency preparedness.