Oshawa

This southern Ontario riding, 60 kilometres east of Toronto, contains most of the city of Oshawa.

The southern boundary is Lake Ontario. The northern boundary is Winchester Road East, between Townline Road North in the east and Simcoe Street North, Rossland Road West, Oshawa Creek, King Street West and the city limits in the west.

Oshawa is a centre of the Canadian automobile industry and the local economy is dominated by General Motors. It is one of Ontario's most industrial ridings, with 16.8 per cent of employment coming from manufacturing. The 2006 census shows an average family income of $78,531 and an unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent.

Oshawa-Whitby riding was created in 1966 and renamed Oshawa in 1976. In the 1996 redistribution, 13 per cent of Durham was added. In 2004, the boundary of the riding was pushed north to include part of Durham.

Population: 116,881 (2006 census; an increase of 2.8% since 2001)

Political History

In the 2006 election, Conservative Colin Carrie and New Democrat Sid Ryan faced each other for a second time. Carrie came out on top and defeated Ryan by 2,752. The two first met up in 2004 when Carrie won the riding with just 463 more votes than Ryan, the Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Liberal Ivan Grose served three terms from 1993 to 2004.

New Democratic support in this riding waned after Ed Broadbent stepped down as the Oshawa MP, when he resigned as the national NDP leader in 1989. Broadbent was first elected in 1968, defeating Conservative Michael Starr. He became NDP leader in July 1975 and won seven terms as MP for Oshawa-Whitby and Oshawa.

In the 1990 byelection following Broadbent's resignation, New Democrat Mike Breaugh defeated Liberal Cathy O'Flynn.

• 1968-1990 byelection inclusive - NDP
• 1993, 1997, 2000 - LIB
• 2004, 2006 - CON