Cape Breton - Canso

This riding in eastern Nova Scotia lies between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean and spreads northwest to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The riding includes Richmond County and parts of Inverness and Guysborough counties and Cape Breton. Bras d'Or Lake is in the central part of the riding and Scatarie Island is in the northeast. Major centres include Glace Bay, Inverness, Guysborough and Port Hawkesbury. The Whycocomagh and Chapel Island reserves are also in the riding.

The industries here are mostly services and retail trade, as well as manufacturing, health and social services. The average family income is $60,211 and the unemployment rate is a high 15.8 per cent.

There is a significant Acadian population and according to the 2006 census, more than seven per cent cited French as their mother tongue. The total immigrant population was labout two per cent.

In 2004, the riding became Cape Breton-Canso. It comprises 96 per cent of Bras D'Or-Cape Breton and nine per cent of Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough in the south as well as a small area from Sydney-Victoria. The riding of Bras D'Or-Cape Breton was created in the 1996 redistribution from 78 per cent of Cape Breton-East Richmond and 46 per cent of Cape Breton-Highlands-Canso.

Population: 71,968 (2006 census; a decrease of 4.3% since 2001)

Political History

Liberal Rodger Cuzner is serving his third term in the riding after defeating Conservative Kenzie MacNeil in the 2006 election. Cuzner received 53 per cent of the vote and outpolled his opponent by 11,684 votes.

In 2004, Cuzner defeated his nearest competitor, New Democrat Shirley Hartery, by more than 10,000 votes. In 1997, New Democrat Michelle Dockrill had defeated Liberal David Dingwall, but in 2000, she was third.

In Cape Breton-East Richmond, PC Donald MacInnis won four terms beginning in 1957. The riding voted NDP in 1962, then re-elected MacInnis in 1968 and 1972. New Democrat Andy Hogan won in 1974 and 1979. Liberal David Dingwall won in 1980 and served four terms. He was appointed minister of public works and government services and minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency in 1993. He was appointed minister of health in 1996.

The former riding of Inverness-Richmond voted Liberal from 1935 to the 1958 election. Liberal Allan MacEachen won in 1953 and 1957, but was defeated in 1958 by 16 votes. He was re-elected in 1962 and held the riding until his Senate appointment in 1984. He was first appointed to cabinet in 1963 and served in several cabinet posts, including as external affairs minister, finance minister and deputy prime minister. PC Lawrence O'Neil won in 1984 and Liberal Francis LeBlanc in 1988 and 1993.

• 1997 - NDP
• 2000, 2004, 2006 - LIB