Bay Ward

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bay
Ottawa City Council

Bay Ward is a municipal ward in Ottawa, Canada. It covers much of the western portion of the old city of Ottawa as well as some portions of what was once Nepean. The ward runs from Sherbourne and Maitland in the east to March Road in the west. The southern border in the Queensway while the northern border is the Ottawa River. The ward makes up the northern portion of the federal and provincial riding of Ottawa West-Nepean.

The ward contains a number of neighbourhoods, with quite diverse populations. Some of the neighbourhoods in the ward are Woodroffe North, Michelle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Britannia, and Crystal Beach. The westernmost part of the ward also contains a large section of the Greenbelt. Some of these neigbourhoods, especially those by the Ottawa River are quite wealthy. However, there are also many much poorer parts of the ward with many residents living in high density apartments. The ward also contains some of Ottawa's highest concentrations of recent immigrants.

Since the creation of the new city of Ottawa the ward has been represented by former MPP Alex Cullen, who is considered to be one of the most left wing members of city council. Bay Ward in other elections tends to be more right of centre, and in the last two elections Cullen has faced strong challenges from conservative opponents. In the 2003 election he faced John Blatherwick, while in 2006 he fended off a challenge from high profile former mayoral candidate Terry Kilrea.

Bay Ward was the home of Bob Chiarelli, and he won the area by large margins in both the 2000 and 2003 elections. In the 2006 election, however, the area supported Larry O'Brien and Chiarelli finished third, also behind Alex Munter.