Until 2015, Kanata was in the federal and provincial riding of Carleton—Mississippi Mills. Kanata was the largest centre in the riding, with more than half the population being in Kanata. Both federally and provincially, the riding had tilted strongly conservative, with greater Liberal support in Kanata itself being swamped by more conservative voters in the rest of the riding. Norm Sterling represented the area for decades in the Ontario legislature for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario until he lost the nomination to Jack MacLaren in 2011. Federally, the area went Liberal for most of the 1990s, but in 2000, the riding, then known as Lanark—Carleton, was one of only two in Ontario to elect a Canadian Alliance MP. it was easily won by Conservative Gordon O'Connor in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2011. O'Connor served as a cabinet minister under Stephen Harper from 2006 to 2013.