Regional results

Oak Ridges - Markham (059)

Candidates:

This southern Ontario riding, north of Toronto, has been 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 the town 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 2001 census, the immigrant population was 34 per cent with 14 per cent saying they are Chinese and 8.6 per cent Italian. Manufacturing and the retail trade are major employers.

As a result of the 1999 redistribution, Oak Ridges combined 20 per cent of Durham-York, 40 per cent of York Centre and a small portion of Markham.

The 2007 redistribution added 25 per cent of the Markham riding as well as parts of Vaughan-King-Aurora and York North.

From Elections Ontario:
Oak Ridges - Markham [HTML] [PDF, 301KB]
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Political History:

After serving in surrounding ridings since 1959, Tory Bill Newman was elected in Durham-York in 1977. Ross Stevenson won Durham-York for the Progressive Conservatives in 1981 and 1985, but lost the seat to Liberal Bill Balinger in 1987. New Democrat Larry O'Connor won here in 1990, only to lose the seat in 1995 to Tory Julia Munro by a margin of 16,970 votes.

In the old York Centre riding, which became part of Vaughan-King-Aurora in 1999, Liberal Donald Deacon won in 1967 and 1971, followed by Liberal Alf Stong in 1975 and 1977. Tory Don Cousens defeated Stong in 1981 and won re-election in 1985, but switched to run successfully in the new Markham riding in 1987.

Greg Sorbara reclaimed the seat for the Liberals in 1987 and held on to it in 1990. Al Palladini won the riding for the Tories in 1995 and won re-election in 1999, but in the redistributed riding of Vaughan-King-Aurora.

Markham riding was created in 1986 from parts of York North and York-Peel, later renamed Markham-Whitchurch-Stouffville and then redistributed between several ridings. Tory Don Cousens won the first two elections in the new riding, in 1987 and 1990, before leaving provincial politics to become the town's mayor.

David Tsubouchi won Markham for the Tories in 1995 and again in 1999. He served in the cabinets of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, as community and social services minister and as Ontario's solicitor-general from 1999 to 2001.

Tsubouchi ran again in 2003, but was upset by Liberal Tony Wong, who won by a margin of 6,274 votes. Wong shocked the party with his September 2006 resignation to run for York regional council. Liberal Michael Chan emerged as the winner of the subsequent February 2007 byelection. He was named revenue minister soon after his victory.

Oak Ridges, created from parts of Markham-Whitchurch-Stouffville and York North, was first represented in the provincial legislature in 1999, when Progressive Conservative Frank Klees routed Liberal Vito Spatafora by 13,005 votes. Klees kept the seat in 2003, but only narrowly triumphed over Liberal Helena Jaczek, winning by 2,143 votes.

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