Meet the 4 new MPs in Waterloo region and Guelph

Four caller Members of Parliament were elected successful Monday's national predetermination to correspond ridings successful Waterloo portion and Guelph.

In Guelph, Liberal Dominique O'Rourke won the spot near vacant by outgoing MP Lloyd Longfield.

Conservatives Connie Cody successful Cambridge, Matt Strauss successful Kitchener South-Hespeler and Kelly DeRidder successful Kitchener Centre each ousted sitting MPs to triumph their seats.

CBC News spoke to each of them astir their wins and what their goals are arsenic they caput to Ottawa to correspond the radical successful their ridings.

Connie Cody, Cambridge

Cody ran for the Conservatives successful the 2021 predetermination and has besides tally for metropolis council. She has held roles connected the city's environmental and accessibility committees and has volunteered successful the community, including successful schools and astatine the Legion.

She bushed Liberal incumbent Bryan May by 1,457 votes. May had held the spot successful Cambridge since 2015,

Cody says a large crushed she believes she won was due to the fact that "people present successful our assemblage were looking for anticipation and looking for change."

Top issues Cody said she heard from voters included housing, information and outgo of living.

"Affordability is 1 of the things that I've heard the most. I've been going door-to-door," she said.

"Housing, of course, each falls nether affordability and we've got to marque definite that we person safer streets, safer communities and radical are deserving of being capable to ain their ain homes."

She says her absorption was connected getting retired to perceive from radical during the campaign.

"I was calved and raised here. It's a portion of my bosom and psyche and it's location to me. And whether I won oregon lost, I privation to marque definite that I service the community the champion that I can," she said.

LISTEN | Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge spell bluish pursuing national election:

Kelly DeRidder, Kitchener Centre

DeRidder, the Conservative candidate, won a precise adjacent contention successful Kitchener Centre, beating Green incumbent Mike Morrice and Liberal campaigner Brian Adeba.

The votes were:

• DeRidder — 20,234.
• Morrice — 19,859.
• Adeba — 17,292.

The contention was truthful adjacent that the candidates didn't cognize the last numbers of who won until precocious Tuesday afternoon.

In an interrogation with CBC K-W's The Morning Edition, DeRidder said the triumph felt "surreal" but besides that "it feels great. I'm honoured."

DeRidder said affordability was a apical contented she heard from radical successful Kitchener Centre on with radical acrophobic astir drugs successful the city.

"I privation to correspond each azygous idiosyncratic successful this riding, nary substance however anyone voted. And truthful I deliberation that resonated with a batch of people," she said. "I had immoderate large and sometimes hard conversations with non-supporters astatine the doorway arsenic good and my goal, my absorption is Kitchener Centre arsenic a riding and serving the assemblage especially."

On Monday night, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre did not triumph his spot successful Parliament, though it was announced Friday helium plans to tally successful a yet-to-be-called byelection successful the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, wherever the elected candidate, Damien Kurek, has said helium would measurement down.

DeRidder said helium was acrophobic astir what it would mean for the enactment if Poilievre wasn't successful the House of Commons.

"it's decidedly a antithetic scenery that I was expecting to locomotion into arsenic a Member of Parliament here successful Kitchener Centre. So antithetic enactment I was expecting. It's a antithetic environment," DeRidder said successful the interrogation Wednesday morning.

"I'm conscionable going to bash the champion I tin with the concern that we person and inactive propulsion guardant what volition champion service our assemblage and hopefully enactment with each parties successful Parliament to champion service successful the mode we tin nether this landscape."

LISTEN | Conservative campaigner Kelly DeRidder talks astir however Kitchener Centre flipped from greenish to bluish successful choky predetermination race:

Matt Strauss, Kitchener-South Hespeler

Strauss, the Conservative candidate, said helium was "overwhelmed with gratitude" for the radical who helped get him elected.

He bushed Liberal incumbent Valerie Bradford, who had served arsenic MP for the riding since 2021, by 1,028 votes.

"The occupation was to spell astir and speech to arsenic galore radical arsenic imaginable and perceive arsenic galore stories arsenic I could and past benignant of collate those stories into a accordant communicative astir our assemblage and what needs to beryllium done," Strauss told CBC News.

"I'm truthful blessed to person had that accidental and I'm still reasoning astir however we're going to propulsion those concerns and those priorities forward."

Strauss has been a doc successful the country for the past 13 years and was the main of the ICU astatine the Guelph General Hospital for galore years. He besides the erstwhile acting aesculapian serviceman of wellness for the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit. 

Strauss' tenure successful that relation was arguable arsenic helium spoke retired against COVID-19 mandates. The Ontario Liberals called for Strauss' assignment to the relation to be vetoed because, wellness professional John Fraser said astatine the time, Strauss opposed "life-saving nationalist wellness measures." The Ontario authorities did not veto Strauss' appointment.

Days later, immoderate members of Haldimand-Norfolk's committee of health said they were looking for ways to overturn Strauss being hired as the acting aesculapian serviceman implicit comments helium made online connected Twitter (now X), including connected Aug. 3, 2020 erstwhile helium wrote that he'd alternatively springiness his children COVID-19 than a Happy Meal. That ne'er happened and Strauss resigned from that relation successful 2023. 

In 2022, he sued Queen's University successful Kingston after helium resigned from a presumption there. Strauss alleged "malicious, aggressive, condescending and defamatory statements" made astir him. In May 2024 connected X, Elon Musk tweeted helium would financially enactment the lawsuit, nevertheless Strauss says helium ne'er accepted immoderate wealth from Musk. The suit remains earlier the court.

Strauss said helium heard from galore radical who were precise upset with the existent government.

"Things person not been going good for the past 10 years. The large things that radical speech to maine about, I'm a physician, they talked to maine a batch astir wellness care," helium said.

"Many radical cried astatine the doorway explaining peculiar episodes of vexation they had with our health-care system. People cried astatine the doorway discussing their concerns astir the lodging crisis."

He said helium felt similar "there was a batch of wounded retired determination and radical privation change. So I deliberation that's not bully quality for incumbents successful general."

LISTEN | Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge spell bluish pursuing national election:

Dominique O'Rourke, Guelph

O'Rourke won the unfastened spot successful Guelph, which was near vacant due to the fact that Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield opted not to question re-election.

O'Rourke is simply a metropolis councillor successful Guelph and besides runs her ain nationalist relations firm. 

"It's a precise humbling experience. It's an honour and I consciousness a batch of gratitude to the squad that worked with maine not conscionable since the election, but for the past 18 months," she said connected CBC K-W's The Morning Edition connected Tuesday morning.

"Really what was driving america was to beryllium definite to enactment Guelph successful the champion presumption possible, to propulsion backmost against the tariffs, to propulsion backmost against Trump, and truly enactment toward, how bash we support our sovereignty and our system portion inactive moving guardant and besides moving connected affordability."

Along with housing, O'Rourke said helping municipalities code clime enactment is "very critical."

O'Rourke says her enactment arsenic a metropolis councillor volition assistance her leap into the relation of MP due to the fact that she understands what the metropolis needs from the national government, having chaired the infrastructure improvement and situation committees.

She said the connection she heard from radical astatine the doors was that they expect MPs successful Ottawa to enactment together.

"It sounds trite, but we are overmuch stronger together. And we request to beryllium reasoning astir however we determination guardant successful a stronger position. So not reasoning needfully astir the authorities wrong the country, but however we presumption Canada truthful that it's the strongest it tin be," she said.

"I privation radical to cognize that I heard them astatine the doorway and immoderate of the conversations that I valued the astir were radical who had a antithetic position from mine."

LISTEN | Liberal Dominique O'Rourke wins Guelph riding:

MPs are expected to instrumentality to Ottawa connected May 26. It was announced connected Friday that King Charles volition present the throne code successful idiosyncratic connected May 27.