Elgin - Middlesex - London

This southwestern Ontario riding borders Lake Erie in the south and takes in parts of Elgin and Middlesex counties.

The riding includes part of the city of London, south of Dingman Creek, Southdale Road, White Oak Road, Exeter Road, Meg Drive, Jalna Boulevard, Earnest Avenue and Bradley Avenue. The township of Thames Centre and the towns of St. Thomas, Aylmer and Port Burwell fall in the riding.

Primarily rural, with an economy driven by manufacturing and agriculture, the riding is known as tobacco country. There is also a significant insurance industry in London. The 2006 census shows an average family income of $80,553 and an unemployment rate of five per cent.

A small portion of the Perth-Middlesex riding north of Highway 401 was added in the 2004 redistribution. The riding of Elgin-Middlesex-London was created in 1996 from 87 per cent of Elgin-Norfolk and portions of London-Middlesex and Lambton-Middlesex.

Population: 110,028 (2006 census; an increase of 5.2% since 2001)

Political History

Incumbent Joe Preston took the riding for the Conservatives in the 2006 election and beat Liberal Crispin Colvin by 9,899 votes.

In 2004, Preston defeated longtime Liberal MP Gar Knutson by 4,573 votes.

Knutson held the riding from 1993. In 2002, he became secretary of state for central and eastern Europe and the Middle East, and in 2003 he became minister of state for new and emerging markets.

Liberal Harold Stafford won the former Elgin-Norfolk riding in 1965 and 1968. He was defeated in 1972 by PC John Wise, who served five terms. Wise was minister of agriculture under prime ministers Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney.

Elgin/Elgin-Norfolk:

• 1935, 1940 - LIB


• 1945-63 inclusive - PC


• 1965, 1968 - LIB


• 1972-88 inclusive - PC


• 1993 - LIB

• 1997, 2000 - LIB


• 2004, 2006 - CON