Huron (electoral district)

Huron
Ontario electoral district
Defunct federal electoral district
LegislatureHouse of Commons
District created1952
District abolished1979
First contested1953
Last contested1974 (only contest as Huron–Middlesex)
Defunct provincial electoral district
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of Ontario
District created1933
District abolished1996
First contested1934 (1975 as Huron–Middlesex)
Last contested1995
Demographics
Census division(s)Huron, Middlesex

Huron, and later Huron–Middlesex, was an electoral district in Midwestern Ontario, Canada formerly represented in Canada's House of Commons and in the provincial Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Throughout both its federal and provincial existence, the district had within it the majority of Huron county's population, with the county's major population centres such as Goderich, Seaforth (now part of Huron East), Clinton (now part of Central Huron), and Exeter (now part of South Huron) in the district at all time. In the early 1970s, portions of Middlesex County were added to both the federal and provincial district, leading to the name change to Huron–Middlesex at both levels.

Upon the elimination of the federal district in 1979 and of the provincial district in 1996, both saw their territories absorbed by districts named Huron–Bruce. The nature of their transitions were however different. A Huron—Bruce (federal electoral district) had not previously existed, and thus was a bona fide successor district of the Huron/Huron–Middlesex federal electoral district. The Huron—Bruce (provincial electoral district) in the other hand was created at the same time as the Huron provincial district and had co-existed with Huron for more than five of Huron's six-decade existence, each returning a member to the 19th to 33rd Ontario parliaments.

Members of Provincial Parliament

Huron
Assembly Years Member Party
Electoral district created from Huron North and Bruce South
19th  1934–1937     James Simpson
Ballantyne		 Liberal
20th  1937–1943
21st  1943–1945     Robert Hobbs Taylor Progressive Conservative
22nd  1945–1948
23rd  1948–1951     Thomas Pryde Progressive Conservative
24th  1951–1955
25th  1955–1958
25th  1958–1959     Charles MacNaughton Progressive Conservative
26th  1959–1963
27th  1963–1967
28th  1967–1971
29th  1973–1975     Jack Riddell Liberal
Huron–Middlesex
30th  1975–1977
31st  1977–1981
32nd  1981–1985
33rd  1985–1987
Huron
34th  1987–1990
35th  1990–1995     Paul Klopp New Democratic
36th  1995–1999     Helen Johns Progressive Conservative
Merged with Bruce to form
Huron-Bruce

Evolution of geography

Provincial

The Huron provincial electoral district was created by the Representation Act, 1933.[1] Huron Country saw its representation reduced previously in 1925 from three to two seats. The 1933 redistribution further reduced its representation to one and a half seats through the elimination of Huron South and Huron North and the creation of the new Huron and Huron—Bruce electoral districts. The 1933 act divides the communities in Huron county as follows: (grouped by modern day municipalities created in 2001 as noted in brackets, for ease of reference only)

The distribution of communities remained the same following the redistribution in 1954.[2] The redistribution of 1966 specifically named two additional communities, Zurich and Bayfield (both now in Bluewater) in Huron, that were not mentioned before, but made no real change to the geography of these electoral district.

The 1975 redistribution brought substantive changes to the electoral district, adding various community form Middlexsex County to the district while transferring McKillop and Hullett away to Huron—Bruce[3] The communities assigned to the two district after 1975 were as follows:

In 1986, Huron's representation was further reduced to a single seat. The provincial district of Huron–Bruce was eliminated and the electoral district name was reverted back to Huron with the entire country assigned to it.

The provincial electoral district of Huron was tagged for elimination in 1996 with the enactment of the Fewer Politicians Act, 1996, which prescribed the adoption of federal electoral boundary in a subsequent election.[4] The Huron riding was slated to merge with neighbouring Bruce, leading to the head-to-head nomination battle between two Progressive Conservative MPPs, Huron's Helen Johns and Bruce's Barbara Fisher, from which Johns emerged as the winner.

Federal

The Huron federal electoral district had a relative shorter lifespan. It was created in 1952 by the federal Representation Act of 1952 with a vast majority of the Huron County, with only three communities being assigned to neighboring Wellington-Huron.

In 1966, the electoral district ridded of its small piece in Perth, gained almost all remaining Huron communities from Wellington–Huron, plus three communities from Middlesex County: Ailsa Craig, Biddulph and McGillivray.

Similar to what would occur to its provincial counterpart a year later, the federal electoral district was renamed Huron–Middlesex in 1974.[5] Unlike its counterpart however, it gain no new territory. It was simply a delayed renaming to properly reflect the communities it had incorporated eight years earlier. The federal district was only contested under the new name Huron–Middlesex once in 1974.

In the 1976 round of redistribution, the electoral district was to revert back to be just Huron and was slated to stay the course with only minor adjustments. The 1976 Representation Order that was proclaimed in 1976 had it trade the three Middlesex communities for Carrick, Culross, Huron and Kinloss from Bruce County.

In July 1977 however, the brief existence of the federal district came abruptly to an end. An act of parliament with only one section was enacted for the sole purpose of changing its name from Huron to Huron—Bruce. It was one however, as eleven other electoral districts met the same fate.

References

Sources

Boundaries definitions:

  • Representation Act, 1933. Statutes of the Province of Ontario. Vol. 23 George V. 1933. c.56.
      The Electoral District of Huron, — to consist of the Townships of Goderich, Hay, Hullett, McKillop, Stanley, Stephen, Tuckersmith and Usborne, the Towns of Clinton. Goderich and Seaforth, and the Villages of Exeter and Hensall.
      The Electoral District of Huron-Bruce, — to consist of the Townships of Ashfield, Carrick, Colborne, Culross, Grey, Howick, Huron, Kinloss, Morris, Turnberry, Wawanosh East, Wawanosh West, the Town of Wingham, and the Villages of Blyth, Brussels, Lucknow, Mildmay, Ripley and Teeswater.
  • Representation Act 1954. Statutes of the Province of Ontario. Vol. 3 Elizabeth. 1954. c.84.
     The Electoral District of Huron — to consist of the townships of Goderich, Hay, Hullett, McKillop, Stanley, Stephen, Tuckersmith, and Usborne, the towns of Clinton, Exeter, Goderich, and Seaforth, and the Village of Hensall.
     The Electoral District of Huron-Bruce — to consist of the townships of Ashfield, Carrick, Colborne, Culross, Grey, Howick, Huron, Kinloss, Morris, Turnberry, East Wawanosh, and West Wawanosh, the Town of W7ingham, and the villages of Blyth, Brussels, Lucknow, Mildmay, Ripley, and Teeswater.
  • Representation Act, 1966. Statutes of the Province of Ontario. Vol. 14-15 Elizabeth. 1966. c.137.
     The Electoral District of Huron — consists of the townships of Goderich, Hay, Hullett, McKillop, Stanley, Stephen, Tuckersmith and Usborne, the towns of Clinton, Exeter, Goderich and Seaforth, and the villages of Bayfield, Hensall and Zurich.
     The Electoral District of Huron-Bruce — consists of the townships of Ashfield, Bruce, Carrick, Colborne, Culross, East Wawanosh, Greenock, Grey, Howick, Huron, Kincardine, Kinloss, Morris, Turnberry and West Wawanosh, the towns of Kincardine and Wingham, and the villages of Blyth, Brussels, Lucknow, Mildmay and Teeswater,
  • Representation Act, 1975. Statutes of the Province of Ontario. Vol. 24 Elizabeth II. 1975. c.13.
     The Electoral District of Huron-Bruce - to consist of the townships of Ashfield, Bruce, Carrick, Colborne, Culross, East Wawanosh, Greenock, Grey, Howick, Hullett, Huron, Kincardine, Kinloss, McKillop, Morris, Saugeen, Turnberry and West Wawanosh, the towns of Kincardine, Port Elgin, Southampton, and Wingham, and the villages of Blyth, Brussels, Lucknow, Mildmay, Ripley, Teeswater and Tiverton.
     The Electoral District of Huron-Middlesex - to consist of the townships of Adelaide, Biddulph, East Williams, Goderich, Hay, McGillivray, Stanley, Stephen, Tuckersmith, Usborne and West Williams, the towns of Clinton, Exeter, Goderich, Parkhill and Seaforth, and the villages of Ailsa Craig, Bayfield, Hensall, Lucan and Zurich.

Federal

  • The Representation Act, 1952. Statutes of Canada. Vol. 1 Elizabeth. 1952. c.48.
      HURON consisting of that part of the county of Perth included in the township of Hibbert and that part of the county of Huron included in the townships of Hullett, McKillop, Stanley, Tuckersmith, Hay, Stephen, Usborne, Grey, Morris, Colborne, Goderich, Ashfield, East Wawanosh and West Wawanosh.
  • Representation Order, 1966
      HURON consisting of:
(a) the County of Huron excepting the Village of Lucknow;
(b) that part of the County of Middlesex contained in the Village of Ailsa Craig and the Townships of Biddulph and McGillivray.
  • Representation Order, 1976
      HURON consisting of:
(a) the County of Huron;
(b) that part of the County of Bruce contained in the Townships of Carrick, Culross, Huron and Kinloss.
  • Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, 1974. Statutes of Canada. Vol. 23 Elizabeth II. 1974. c.7, schedule Paragraph 26.
Paragraph 26 of that Part of the Schedule to the Proclamation declaring the draft representation order under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act to be in force, effective upon the dissolution of the 27th Parliament of Canada, dealing with the description of the electoral districts in the Province of Ontario, which describes the electoral district of Huron, is amended by substituting for the word: "HURON", the words: "HURON-MIDDLESEX" at the beginning of the said description.
s.1 Paragraph 33 of the Part of the Schedule to the Proclamation of June 11, 1976 declaring the draft representation order under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act in force effective upon the first dissolution of Parliament that occurs at least one year after the day on which the Proclamation is made dealing with the electoral districts in the Province of Ontario, which paragraph names and describes the electoral district of Huron, is amended by substituting for the name "HURON", the name "HURON-BRUCE" at the beginning of the paragraph.
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