OTTAWA—When Catherine McKenna looks at a roomful of her 127 fellow rookie Liberal MPs, she sees police chiefs, soldiers, aboriginal leaders, mayors, doctors, refugees, athletes, social workers, tradespeople, academics and several lawyers such as herself.

“A lot of people really believed we were off-track with the last government and it was really important to contribute by stepping up to run,” said McKenna, who defeated New Democrat incumbent Paul Dewar in the riding of Ottawa Centre.

McKenna is part of what may be the most diverse governing caucus of MPs that voters have ever sent to Parliament Hill.

At 44, McKenna is also part of the biggest demographic group in the Liberal caucus, with 82 of those elected falling in the 30-to-49 age range. The second largest is the 50-64 group, with 68 MPs, according to a Maclean’s magazine analysis. McKenna is also one of 50 women to be elected to the Liberal caucus.

The Liberals also have 38 of the 46 visible minorities elected to the House of Commons.

McKenna represents the downtown Ottawa riding that includes Parliament Hill. That makes her typical of many fellow Liberal MPs, in the sense that much of the caucus is comprised of MPs from major urban centres.

The Liberals painted the map red in and around most major cities, including the greater Vancouver and Montreal areas, Ottawa and its surrounding areas and the Greater Toronto Area, including Mississauga and Brampton, as well as most of Winnipeg.

That’s on top of a smattering of MPs from rural ridings.

And, of course, McKenna’s colleagues also include all 33 ridings from Atlantic Canada, as well as all three Arctic ridings and a majority of Quebecers.

The New Democrats enter the 42nd session of Parliament with fewer than half of the members going into the 2015 election and clear weaknesses in terms of visibility and geography.

They have not a single representative in Atlantic Canada nor the North. And, despite running the largest number of aboriginal candidates of any party in the election campaign, only two were successful. The NDP also has just two members of Parliament who can be classified as visible minorities.

With 44 seats in the Commons, roughly 41 per cent are women, a significantly higher percentage than the overall female total in the 338-seat House — 26 per cent.

Despite being forced back to third-party status by voters, however, the party is poised to start over with a lot of fresh, young blood — ready to rebuild and focused on holding the majority Trudeau Liberals to account.

The 99-member Conservative team is also preparing to take the Liberals to task as the official Opposition.

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About a third of the new Conservative caucus is composed of rookies, some coming from other political careers, while others are joining after having spent several years working for MPs.

Both rookies and veterans will have a learning curve, said James Rajotte, who served in opposition for six years before the Conservatives formed government in 2006.

The party has another regional dynamic to contend with — no MPs at all from the Atlantic region but more than ever before from Quebec.

The province was the only place in Canada where the Conservatives actually widened their support, producing their best-ever showing of 12 MPs, up from five in 2011.

That’s largely credited to the work of Denis Lebel, who served as former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Quebec lieutenant. Lebel has not put forward his name publicly for the interim leadership but is said to be interested in the position.

With files from Terry Pedwell and Stephanie Levitz.