Leeds - Grenville

This eastern Ontario riding stretches along the St. Lawrence River and north to the Rideau River and Big Rideau Lake.

It contains the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville. Although the riding is largely rural, it includes Gananoque, Westport, Brockville, Prescott and Merrickville-Wolford as well as the Thousand Islands region.

The economic base is light manufacturing and the service sector with some agriculture. Tourism is also important to the area. The average family income is $74,422 and unemployment is 5.7 per cent. In the 2006 census, seniors made up more than 17 per cent of the population.

Leeds-Grenville was created in 1976 from a combination of Leeds and Grenville-Carleton riding.

Population: 99,206 (2006 census; an increase of 2.7% since 2001)

Political History

Conservative Gord Brown is serving his second term in this riding after a substantial victory in the 2006 election over Liberal Bob Easton, winning by more than 15,000 votes.

Brown defeated Liberal incumbent Joe Jordan in 2004 by 9,035 votes. In 2000, Jordan had defeated Brown, then an Alliance candidate with a Conservative opponent, by just 55 votes.

Tom Cossitt, a Liberal candidate in this riding, left the Leeds Liberal Association over the "Liberal sellout to Quebec" on the language issue in 1970. In 1972, he took the seat as a Conservative candidate and won the next three elections. He died while attending a party meeting in 1982 and his wife, Jennifer Cossitt, ran in a 1983 byelection and won. She won the 1984 election, but was defeated by Joe Jordan's father, Jim Jordan, in 1988. Jim Jordan won a second term in 1993. Joe Jordan was then elected twice, in 1997 and 2000.

• 1979-84 inclusive - PC
• 1988, 1993, 1997, 2000 - LIB
• 2004, 2006 - CON