Riding Profile:
This southern riding is mostly made up of the city of Stoney Creek,
located between Hamilton and St. Catharines, and boasts the greatest
share of Croatian speakers in the province.
The riding also takes in a portion of the city of Hamilton (in the
northwest corner), the town of Grimsby (in the northeast) and Glanbrook
Township (in the south).
The local economy is sustained by light industries and service companies
feeding off the steel industry in Hamilton and the automotive industry
in St. Catharines.
Many constituents here commute to work in either Mississauga, Toronto,
Hamilton or St. Catharines.
In the 1999 redistribution, the new riding of Stoney Creek added 25
per cent of Lincoln to the former riding of Wentworth East.
Political History:
In the riding of Lincoln, Tory Bob Welch won in 1963, 1967 and 1971.
Liberal Ross Hall was victorious here in 1975 and again in 1977, but
lost to Tory Phil Andrewes in 1981. Andrewes was re-elected in 1985
and defeated by Liberal Harry Pelissero in 1987. In 1990, the NDP's
Ron Hansen won the seat, but lost it in 1995 to Conservative candidate
Frank Sheehan.
Ian Deans won the traditionally NDP riding of Wentworth in 1967 and
held the seat until his resignation in 1979. In the resulting by-election,
NDP candidate Colin Isaacs defeated Tory Gordon Dean by just 543 votes,
only to lose the seat to Dean in the 1981 general election. Dean was
re-elected in 1981 and 1985.
In the pre-1999 riding of Wentworth East, Liberal Shirley Collins won
in 1987 but was defeated by NDP candidate Mark Morrow in 1990. In 1995,
Ed Doyle won the seat for the Tories.
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