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No, the story of the 2015 campaign in Ottawa is most likely to be the fight for the suburban seats in Ottawa’s version of the 905 area code around Toronto, the ring running from Kanata to Orléans, where retirements and riding redistributions have changed the calculations since the 2011 vote. In those ridings, the New Democrats are coming from so far behind that they’d need a very big national surge just to contend.

In declining order of interestingness:

Orléans

This is where the Liberals are running their strongest local challenger in retired general Andrew Leslie, the former commander of the Canadian Army. The riding’s been held by Royal Galipeau since 2006, though he’s never won it with a majority — indeed, nobody has in 15 years.

Photo by Pat McGrath / Ottawa Citizen

Galipeau’s a backbencher of no particular distinction though he takes his work as a parliamentarian with exceptional seriousness — reckoning up his more than 3,000 days in office to remind himself to make each one count. He’s battled myeloma, a blood cancer that can be suppressed but not yet cured, though to outward appearances he’s as vigorous as ever.

Leslie’s a star candidate who’s been very busy since his early nomination. His military career gives him plenty of heft (he’d surely be a minister in a Justin Trudeau government) but he brings baggage.

Photo by Graham Hughes / CP

He knew he wanted to be a politician after he left the military but he didn’t know where. The Liberal party shoved aside former candidate David Bertschi to clear a path for him after he spent ages hemming and hawing about which riding he’d run in. He billed taxpayers $72,000 to move a short distance after he retired — money to which he was clearly entitled, though it looks bad in a would-be politician — and he’s easily portrayed as a carpetbagger.