Patrick Glemaud is the Conservative candidate for Ottawa-Vanier. He's also one of the standard-bearers for a party hoping to break new ground with new Canadian voters.

Glemaud is a Haitian-Canadian whose family came to Canada when he was 12. He describes his early life as financially hard, with his father on disability insurance.

He worked his way through law school and later worked at Community Legal Services practicing what he calls "poverty law." He then went to work for the Department of Justice, where he worked on key environmental files.

Glemaud voted Liberal for many years but he says a short stint as a small business owner helped convince him to move to the Conservatives.

"You start asking yourself some questions. What exactly is good for you as a new Canadian?... The result of that calculation ends up being, well, you have to focus on a political party that addresses our interests."

He went on to express frustration with the Liberals, who he said give communities small amounts of money for a few festivals but not much else.

"They eat spicy food and they go home. But we wanted jobs."

He says many of the Haitian-Canadians, Somali-Canadians and African-Canadians in his riding are also giving the Conservative party a serious look.

— Louise Elliott