Oak Ridges - Markham

This southern Ontario riding, north of Toronto, was created because of rapid growth in York region.

The riding contains the town of Whitchurch-Stouffville and part of King Township lying south of Highway 9. It also contains part of Richmond Hill northeast of Gamble Road, Yonge Street and Elgin Mills Road East and part of the Town of Markham northeast of 16th Avenue, McCowan Road and Highway 7.

In the 2006 census the immigrant population was 42 per cent, with 23.4 per cent listing Chinese as their ethnic origin, 13 per cent Italian and 6.4 per cent East Indian. Manufacturing, the service sector and retail trade are major employers. Average family income is $117,761 and unemployment is five per cent.

The riding of Oak Ridges-Markham was created in the 2004 redistribution from 37 per cent of Oak Ridges, 21 per cent of Markham and parts of Vaughan-King-Aurora and York North.

Population: 169,642 (2006 census; an increase of 52.5% since 2001)

Political History

This riding continues to be Liberal territory after Liberal incumbent Lui Temelkovski beat Conservative Bob Callow by 6,400 votes in 2006.

The two candidates faced each other for the first time in the 2004 election. Temelkovski came out on top by 11,252 votes.

In 2000 in Oak Ridges, Liberal Bryon Wilfert defeated Callow, who was running for the Canadian Alliance.

In 2000 in Markham, Liberal John McCallum defeated Jim Jones of the Canadian Alliance. McCallum was secretary of state for international financial institutions and minister of national defence in 2002. In 2003, Prime Minister Paul Martin named him minister of veteran's affairs. He became minister of national revenue in 2004.

• 2004, 2006 - LIB