Hamilton East - Stoney Creek

This southern Ontario riding takes in the eastern part of Hamilton and part of Stoney Creek.

The riding stretches between Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment. It reaches from Ottawa Street and Mountain Brow Boulevard to beyond Fifty Road.

Manufacturing, retail trade and the service sector are major industries. 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.

The 2006 census shows that 19 per cent of the population are immigrants, 14 per cent of Italian origin. The average family income is $73,327 and unemployment is 7.1 per cent.

The riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek was created in 2004 from 58 per cent of Hamilton East and 53 per cent of the Stoney Creek riding. The Stoney Creek area was formerly the Lincoln riding.

Population: 116,434 (2006 census; an increase of 0.6% since 2001)

Political History

The past two elections in this riding have ended in narrow victories.

In 2006, New Democrat Wayne Marston defeated Liberal incumbent Tony Valeri by only 466 votes.

In the previous election, Valeri won over NDP candidate Tony DePaulo by 927 votes.

Liberal MP Sheila Copps from Hamilton East and Valeri from Stoney Creek competed in a hotly contested race for the Liberal nomination in this riding. Valeri won. Both Hamilton East and Stoney Creek ridings have a long history of voting Liberal.

Copps first won in Hamilton East in 1984 and formed part of the Liberal Rat Pack in the Commons before becoming a cabinet minister under Jean Chrétien in 1993. She resigned in May 1996, after promising to do so if the Liberals didn't scrap the GST; she was re-elected in the byelection that had to be held as a result.

Valeri was elected in the Lincoln riding in 1993 and the Stoney Creek riding in 1997 and 2000. Paul Martin named him minister of transport in December 2003. In 2004, he was named government leader in the House of Commons.

Copps's predecessor in Hamilton East was Liberal John Munro, who was MP from 1962-80. He served as minister of health and welfare, minister of labour and minister of Indian affairs and northern development.

• 2004 - LIB
• 2006 - NDP