On Monday, Oct. 19, a Red Tide rolled across the country as Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party completed an improbable reversal of fortune en route to forming a majority government.
But that within that wave of Liberal red there is a definite McGill-red current, as no fewer than 25 McGillians – including the prime minister-designate himself – were elected to the House of Parliament.
Of the 25 McGill MPs – which includes alumni and one former student who did not completehis degree – 21 are Liberal, two are Conservative and two are with the NDP. They represent ridings in five provinces – 14 in Quebec, eight in Ontario and one each in Newfoundland, Manitoba and British Columbia.
Of the 25, seven are incumbents who were re-elected, while 18 are newly elected MPs.
Among the notable MPs (from a McGill perspective) are David Lambetti, a grad who is also a professor in the Faculty of Law; and John McCallum, the former Dean of Arts at McGill who was at the helm when a young student named Justin Trudeau was an Arts undergrad.
Here is a list of McGillians who were elected on Monday night:
| Name | Province / Territory | Constituency | Political Party |
| Jonathan Wilkinson, MA’92 | British Columbia | North Vancouver | Liberals |
| Jim Carr, BA’79 | Manitoba | Winnipeg South Centre | Liberals |
| Nick Whalen, LLB’01 | Newfoundland and Labrador | St. John’s East | Liberals |
| Karina Gould, BA’10 | Ontario | Burlington | Liberals |
| Julie Dzerowicz, Bcom’94 | Ontario | Davenport | Liberals |
| Scott Reid, past student (PhD’95 Political Science) | Ontario | Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston | Conservatives |
| John McCallum, PhD’77 | Ontario | Markham–Thornhill | Liberals |
| Catherine Mary McKenna, LLB’99 | Ontario | Ottawa Centre | Liberals |
| Arif Virani, BA’94 | Ontario | Parkdale–High Park | Liberals |
| Julie Dabrusin, BA’94 | Ontario | Toronto–Danforth | Liberals |
| Angelo G. Iacono, BA’88 | Québec | Alfred-Pellan | Liberals |
| Steven Blaney, Cert Mgmt’91 | Québec | Bellechasse–Les Etchemins–Lévis | Conservatives |
| Matthew Dubé, BA’11 | Québec | Beloeil–Chambly | NDP |
| Brenda Shanahan, BSW’07 | Québec | Châteauguay–Lacolle | Liberals |
| Michael Levitt, Arts ’93 | Ontario | York Centre | Liberals |
| Francis Scarpaleggia, BA’79 | Québec | Lac-Saint-Louis | Liberals |
| David Lametti, BCL/LLB’89 | Québec | LaSalle–Émard–Verdun | Liberals |
| Sherry Romanado, Cert PR Mgmt’05 | Québec | Longueuil–Charles-LeMoyne | Liberals |
| Anthony Housefather, BCL/LLB’93 | Québec | Mont-Royal | Liberals |
| Thomas Mulcair, BCL’76, LLB’77 | Québec | Outremont | NDP |
| Justin Trudeau, BA’94 | Québec | Papineau | Liberals |
| William Amos, BCL/LLB’04 | Québec | Pontiac | Liberals |
| Peter Schiefke, MSc’11 | Québec | Vaudreuil–Soulanges | Liberals |
| Marc Miller, BCL/LLB’01 | Québec | Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Soeurs | Liberals |
| Jöel Lightbound, BCL/LLB’11 | Québec | Louis-Hébert | Liberals |
Of course, not all McGillians fared so well. Some notable Conservative MPs who were not re-elected include:
- Joe Oliver (BA’61, BCL’64), Conservative Finance Minister, who lost his Eglinton–Lawrence riding to Liberal Marco Mendicino
- Chris Alexander (BA’89), Conservative Citizenship and Immigration Minister, who lost his Ajax riding to Liberal Mark Holland.
- Greg Rickford (BCL/LLB’05), Conservative Natural Resources Minister, who lost his Kenora riding to Liberal Bob Nault.
The NDP also took a major hit – especially in Quebec, where the party managed just 16 seats compared to the heady days of the 2011 election when the Orange Crush rolled to 59 seats. Matthew Dubé is the only member of the “McGill Five” who survived Monday’s carnage, as Laurin Liu (Rivière-des-Milles-Îles), Charmaine Borg (Terrebonne), Jamie Nicholls (Vaudreuil-Soulanges) and Mylène Freeman (Mirabel) all went down in defeat.
Related articles
Justin Trudeau: From McGill to 24 Sussex
What about the other universities? How does McGill compare? Is 24 a lot?
It was actually a nice, round 25. You missed Michael Levitt, BA ’92, who reclaimed York Centre for the Liberals. The riding was previously represented by Ken Dryden, LLB ’73 (or ‘4), before temporarily falling into non-McGill hands. You should update your list.
Also worth noting is that Justin is the first McGillian PM in more than 100 years. The last one was Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the gold medallist in Law in 1864.
Thank you. We’ve updated the article.
Congratulations to all the McGillians elected. Justin was in several of my BEd classes in ’95. I remember the French Grammar Class when I was asked to introduce him to the Class. How do you introduce the son of a famous Canadian Prime Minister, when he had his pictures in all the papers from the time he was born until then. Luckily he had just been on a canoe trip in ’95 and involved with Katimavik which gave me something to share with the class. He could be seen travelling back and forth on his roller blades on Pine Ave,… Read more »