New Ottawa riding Nepean turning into a hot race

Residents living in parts of Nepean are now in a brand new federal riding, one of the 30 new ridings this election that a poll analyst says are tight races.

Nepean was cut out of the old riding of Nepean-Carleton, where the population had grown so large the value of each vote had gone well below the acceptable Ontario average.

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But while the old riding of Nepean-Carleton was a strong Conservative riding in 2011, the new riding is turning into a hot race according to CBC poll analystEric Grenier.

Grenier's Threehundredeight.com is projecting a neck and neck two-way race in Nepean with the Liberals at 38 per cent and the Conservatives at 36 per cent.

Grenier said a majority of the new Canadian ridings were parts of former Conservative ridings, targeted by that party because of their large growing suburban populations.

When these ridings were createda majority of them favoured the Conservatives, Greniersaid,but now a lot of these new ridings are hotly contested.

"What makes them more interesting is that you more often than notdon't have an incumbent, so it frees voters up to consider the options," said Grenier.

And right now with Conservatives down in the national polls, ridings like Nepean areup for grabs.

Nepean riding has different demographic

In geographic terms, the new riding is 25 per cent of the old riding of Nepean-Carleton, but based on population Nepean is larger and more urban.

Pierre Poilievre decided to run for the Conservatives in the remaining riding now called Carleton, where support for the Conservatives in 2011 was more than 60 per cent.

27-year-old Andy Wang is running for the Conservatives in Nepean. Wang owns a small businessand has worked for Poilievre on the Hill and in his constituency office for five years.

Wang said he may not be an incumbentbut he grew up in the riding and knows the area well.

"I reassure voters that I know what a Member of Parliament needs to do to be a strong voice on Parliament Hill and to be a helping hand in the riding," said Wang.

Liberals and NDP getting support from public servants

Nepean Liberal candidateChandra Aryasaid he's hearingfrom disenchanted public servantsat the door.

"We have a lot of opportunities in the new riding," he told the CBC during a visit to the riding.

"The new riding has a significant proportion of public servants, which is boding well for us."

NDP candidateSean Devinewas just nominated in August which has put him behind the two other main parties on the campaign trail.

Still, the NDP received close to 20 per cent of the vote in 2011.

Devine said voters should ignore the concern the NDP could split the vote.

"We are going up in the polls," he said. "And in a few weeks people will be asking the Liberal candidate 'How do you feel about being the spoiler?'"

The national grassroots anti-Conservative group Leadnowhas recently decided the race is so hotit will be commissioning local polls, as they have already done in Orleans and Ottawa West-Nepean, to encourage voters to think strategically.