Candidates:

Current MLA: Ron Russell (PC), Minister of Labour and Environment

Riding Profile: Hants West includes the towns of Windsor and Hantsport. The northern part of Hants County borders the Minas Basin and it includes a largely rural agricultural area from Brooklyn in the east to Upper Falmouth in the west.

Avon Valley Greenhouses, Fundy Gypsum, Minas Basin Pulp and Paper and a cardboard recycling plant are the major employers; Ski Martock in the winter. But most jobs are in the low-paying services sector with another 10 per cent in resource-based industries. Some say it's an economy "in transition."

The unemployment rate is about 9.5 per cent. Educational levels are slightly below the provincial average with 41 per cent having not completed Grade 12.

The twinning of Highway 101 past Mount Uniacke and the building of a new high school has been accompanied by a real estate and construction boom in the Windsor area. The region is fast becoming a services center as well as a bedroom community of Halifax, 30 minutes away.

The riding's population is 19,480 and the average income is $23,420.

Issues: Retaining health services at the Hants Community Hospital and the recruitment of doctors; roads – Highway 101 and the paving of secondary roads such as the 215 to permit tourism; auto insurance; more well-paying jobs to prevent a "brain drain" of youth.

Political History: Hants West traditionally votes PC. It has sent a Liberal to the legislature only three times since 1948. RCAF veteran fighter pilot Ron Russell first won this seat for the PCs in 1978 and the septugenarian is running for his ninth time in a provincial election.

1999: PC Ron Russell took 5,276 votes to defeat LIB Joe Robertson by 3,261 votes. ND Dick Terfry polled 1,764. 1998: PC Ron Russell defeated LIB Debbie Bowes by 1,911 votes. 1993: PC Ron Russell defeated LIB Mike Doyle by 46 votes. 1988: PC Ron Russell defeated LIB Donzell Ross by 2,262 votes.

Voter Turnout: 66 per cent in 1999.