Meet the 4 new MPs in Waterloo region and Guelph
MPs expected to begin new session in Ottawa on May 26
Four new Members of Parliament were elected in Monday's federal election to represent ridings in Waterloo region and Guelph.
In Guelph, Liberal Dominique O'Rourke won the seat left vacant by outgoing MP Lloyd Longfield.
Conservatives Connie Cody in Cambridge, Matt Strauss in Kitchener South-Hespeler and Kelly DeRidder in Kitchener Centre all ousted sitting MPs to win their seats.
CBC News spoke to each of them about their wins and what their goals are as they head to Ottawa to represent the people in their ridings.
Connie Cody, Cambridge
Cody ran for the Conservatives in the 2021 election and has also run for city council. She has held roles on the city's environmental and accessibility committees and has volunteered in the community, including in schools and at the Legion.
She beat Liberal incumbent Bryan May by 1,457 votes. May had held the seat in Cambridge since 2015,
Cody says a big reason she believes she won was because "people here in our community were looking for hope and looking for change."
Top issues Cody said she heard from voters included housing, safety and cost of living.
"Affordability is one of the things that I've heard the most. I've been going door-to-door," she said.
"Housing, of course, all falls under affordability and we've got to make sure that we have safer streets, safer communities and people are deserving of being able to own their own homes."
She says her focus was on getting out to hear from people during the campaign.
"I was born and raised here. It's a part of my heart and soul and it's home to me. And whether I won or lost, I want to make sure that I serve the community the best that I can," she said.
LISTEN | Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge go blue following federal election:
Kelly DeRidder, Kitchener Centre
DeRidder, the Conservative candidate, won a very close race in Kitchener Centre, beating Green incumbent Mike Morrice and Liberal candidate Brian Adeba.
The votes were:
- DeRidder — 20,234.
- Morrice — 19,859.
- Adeba — 17,292.
The race was so close that the candidates didn't know the final numbers of who won until late Tuesday afternoon.
In an interview with CBC K-W's The Morning Edition, DeRidder said the win felt "surreal" but also that "it feels great. I'm honoured."
DeRidder said affordability was a top issue she heard from people in Kitchener Centre along with people concerned about drugs in the city.
"I want to represent every single person in this riding, no matter how anyone voted. And so I think that resonated with a lot of people," she said. "I had some great and sometimes hard conversations with non-supporters at the door as well and my goal, my focus is Kitchener Centre as a riding and serving the community especially."
On Monday night, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre did not win his seat in Parliament, although it was announced Friday he plans to run in a yet-to-be-called byelection in the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, where the elected candidate, Damien Kurek, has said he would step down.
DeRidder said he was concerned about what it would mean for the party if Poilievre wasn't in the House of Commons.
"it's definitely a different landscape that I was expecting to walk into as a Member of Parliament here in Kitchener Centre. So different leadership I was expecting. It's a different environment," DeRidder said in the interview Wednesday morning.
"I'm just going to do the best I can with the situation that we have and still push forward what will best serve our community and hopefully work with all parties in Parliament to best serve in the way we can under this landscape."
LISTEN | Conservative candidate Kelly DeRidder talks about how Kitchener Centre flipped from green to blue in tight election race:
Matt Strauss, Kitchener-South Hespeler
Strauss, the Conservative candidate, said he was "overwhelmed with gratitude" for the people who helped get him elected.
He beat Liberal incumbent Valerie Bradford, who had served as MP for the riding since 2021, by 1,028 votes.
"The job was to go around and talk to as many people as possible and hear as many stories as I could and then sort of collate those stories into a consistent narrative about our community and what needs to be done," Strauss told CBC News.
"I'm so happy to have had that opportunity and I'm still thinking about how we're going to push those concerns and those priorities forward."
Strauss has been a physician in the area for the last 13 years and was the chief of the ICU at the Guelph General Hospital for many years. He also the former acting medical officer of health for the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit.
Strauss' tenure in that role was controversial as he spoke out against COVID-19 mandates. The Ontario Liberals called for Strauss' appointment to the role to be vetoed because, health critic John Fraser said at the time, Strauss opposed "life-saving public health measures." The Ontario government did not veto Strauss' appointment.
Days later, some members of Haldimand-Norfolk's board of health said they were looking for ways to overturn Strauss being hired as the acting medical officer over comments he made online on Twitter (now X), including on Aug. 3, 2020 when he wrote that he'd rather give his children COVID-19 than a Happy Meal. That never happened and Strauss resigned from that role in 2023.
In 2022, he sued Queen's University in Kingston after he resigned from a position there. Strauss alleged "malicious, aggressive, condescending and defamatory statements" made about him. In May 2024 on X, Elon Musk tweeted he would financially support the lawsuit, however Strauss says he never accepted any money from Musk. The lawsuit remains before the court.
Strauss said he heard from many people who were very upset with the current government.
"Things have not been going well for the last 10 years. The major things that people talk to me about, I'm a physician, they talked to me a lot about health care," he said.
"Many people cried at the door explaining particular episodes of frustration they had with our health-care system. People cried at the door discussing their concerns about the housing crisis."
He said he felt like "there was a lot of hurt out there and people want change. So I think that's not good news for incumbents in general."
LISTEN | Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge go blue following federal election:
Dominique O'Rourke, Guelph
O'Rourke won the open seat in Guelph, which was left vacant because Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield opted not to seek re-election.
O'Rourke is a city councillor in Guelph and also runs her own public relations firm.
"It's a very humbling experience. It's an honour and I feel a lot of gratitude to the team that worked with me not just since the election, but for the last 18 months," she said on CBC K-W's The Morning Edition on Tuesday morning.
"Really what was driving us was to be sure to put Guelph in the best position possible, to push back against the tariffs, to push back against Trump, and really work toward, how do we protect our sovereignty and our economy while still moving forward and also working on affordability."
Along with housing, O'Rourke said helping municipalities address climate action is "very critical."
O'Rourke says her work as a city councillor will help her jump into the role of MP because she understands what the city needs from the federal government, having chaired the infrastructure development and environment committees.
She said the message she heard from people at the doors was that they expect MPs in Ottawa to work together.
"It sounds trite, but we are much stronger together. And we need to be thinking about how we move forward in a stronger position. So not thinking necessarily about the politics within the country, but how we position Canada so that it's the strongest it can be," she said.
"I want people to know that I heard them at the door and some of the conversations that I valued the most were people who had a different perspective from mine."
LISTEN | Liberal Dominique O'Rourke wins Guelph riding:
MPs are expected to return to Ottawa on May 26. It was announced on Friday that King Charles will deliver the throne speech in person on May 27.
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