Ottawa Centre

Ottawa Centre is a Canadian federal and provincial electoral district that covers most of downtown Ottawa, Ontario including the Parliament.

The riding has traditionally voted Liberal, with one exception being in the 1984 federal election when widespread disaffection caused it to go to the NDP. It was won by Liberal Mac Harb in the 1988 election who held it until 2003 when he was appointed to the Senate. The riding was left vacant until the 2004 election when Ed Broadbent a former leader of the NDP defeated Liberal Richard Mahoney a close ally of Prime Minister Paul Martin. Other minor candidates included David Chernushenko of the Greens and Mike Murphy of the Conservatives Louis Lang of the Marxist-Lenistist, Michael Foster, Stuart Ryan of the Communists, Robert Gauthier, and Carla Marie Dancey.

Provincially the riding is represented by Liberal Richard Patten.

The riding has a very large government presence the northern part of the riding contains many government office buildings and apartment buildings housing government workers. The southern part of the riding is home to the upper middle class Glebe neighbourhood that is also home to many civil servants.