Riding Profile:

Maps from Elections Ontario will open in a new window. Adobe Acrobat required.

This largely rural eastern riding boasts a large number of francophones, particularly in the city of Cornwall.

The riding also includes the communities of Winchester, Chesterville, Iroquois, Finch, Morrisburg and the part of the Akwesasne Indian Reserve that lies in Ontario.

Manufacturing is the area's main employer, with an agriculture industry that specializes in dairy products.

Only five per cent of this riding's residents hold post-secondary degrees, one of the lowest rates in Ontario.

In the 1999 redistribution, the new riding of Stormont-Dundas combined half of Stormont-Dundas-Grenville and half of East Grenville with the existing Cornwall riding.

Political History:

Premier J.S. MacDonald (1867-71) was elected in the Cornwall riding in 1867 as Coalition Leader, and as a Conservative in 1871. In 1975, NDP George Samis won the first of three consecutive victories, followed by Tory candidate Luc Guindon in 1985. Current incumbent John Cleary won for the Liberals in 1987.

In the Glengarry riding, Tory Osie Villeneuve won in 1948, 1951, 1955, 1963, 1967, 1971, 1975, 1977 and 1981. When he died in 1983, his distant cousin Noble Villeneuve won the by-election, and was re-elected in 1985, 1987, 1990 and 1995.