Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock

Riding Info

Primarily rural, this central-eastern Ontario riding consists of the Victoria region, the Kawarthas, Haliburton, part of Peterborough, the township of Brock and the southeast corner of Algonquin Park. Its largest town is Lindsay.

Major industries include manufacturing, agriculture and tourism.

In 1999, the Haliburton-Victoria-Brock riding was created from most of the old Victoria-Haliburton riding, six per cent of Durham East, 12 per cent of Durham-York, 11 per cent of Hastings-Peterborough and seven per cent of Peterborough.

The 2007 redistribution retained most of the riding while adding small sections of Peterborough and Parry Sound-Muskoka. It was renamed Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock.

Political history

A 2009 byelection yielded a shocking result after PC Leader John Tory was defeated by Liberal Rick Johnson in what was considered a safe riding for the Progressive Conservatives. Tory resigned as leader of the vote.

The byelection was called after PC Laurie Scott, who beat Johnson by almost 10,000 votes in the 2007 general election, stepped down. In theory, this move would have allowed Tory, who was without a seat, to run and get elected. But that did not happen and Scott is challenging Johnson in this year's election.

In 2003, Scott easily outdistanced Liberal Jason Ward by 7,100 votes.

The NDP's Dennis Drainville won the riding of Victoria-Haliburton in 1990, only to resign three years later because he disagreed with a move by Bob Rae's government to allow casino gambling in the province. In the ensuing byelection, PC candidate Chris Hodgson took the seat. He would later be appointed natural resources minister and deputy house leader.

Hodgson did not run in 2003.

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Demographics

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Candidates

NDP - Don Abel

LIB - Rick Johnson

FP - Charles Olito

GRN - Anita Payne

PC - Laurie Scott

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