Essex, ON — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Essex

Under the boundaries used in 2008, Essex was the County of Essex excepting the City of Windsor and the towns of Leamington and Tecumseh: LaSalle and Amherstburg on the Detroit River, Essex and Kingsville inland and on Lake Erie, Lakeshore to the east, and Pelee Island out in the lake — about 1,448 square kilometres. It wraps around Windsor on three sides and shares the city's economy without containing any of it.

Candidates

Jeff Watson (Conservative) — Watson won the seat in 2004 and was defending it for the second time. Born in Windsor in 1971, he studied history and political science at the University of Windsor, worked as an executive assistant and a marketing director, then spent seven years on the trim line at Chrysler's Windsor Assembly Plant. The Library of Parliament described him as the first autoworker to sit in the Commons. He sat on the environment and transport committees and chaired the government's auto caucus.

Susan Whelan (Liberal) — Whelan represented the area for eleven years, winning Essex—Windsor in 1993 and Essex in 1997 and 2000 before Watson unseated her; this was her second attempt to win it back. A 1988 University of Windsor law graduate who practised in the city, she chaired the Commons industry committee from 1997 until early 2002, when Jean Chrétien appointed her Minister for International Cooperation, a post she held until December 2003. Her father Eugene Whelan held a seat in the same county from 1962 to 1984 and was Pierre Trudeau's minister of agriculture. She taught political science part-time at the University of Windsor after leaving Parliament.

Taras Natyshak (NDP) — Natyshak, born in 1977, read political science and labour studies at the University of Windsor and was director of training for Local 625 of the Labourers' International Union of North America. He lived in Belle River and was contesting Essex a second time after 2006.

Richard Bachynsky (Green) — Bachynsky was an environmentalist, writer and consultant from the Windsor area with a background in real estate management and financing.

About the Riding

Essex went into the campaign as one of the hardest-hit places in the country. Its residents work in Windsor's assembly plants, tool-and-die shops and parts suppliers, and demand for the minivans and light trucks built in the city had fallen through the year as fuel prices spiked and credit tightened. The Windsor area carried one of the highest unemployment rates of any Canadian metropolitan area, and layoffs cascaded into the county's smaller shops. Employment insurance, retraining money and a federal response to the auto sector were the questions on the doorstep.

Agriculture provided the counterweight. The county's soils and long growing season support the largest concentration of greenhouse vegetable production in North America, and Kingsville sits at the centre of it alongside neighbouring Leamington, acres of glass and poly growing tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers year round. Natural gas for heating is the sector's largest input cost, and prices that peaked in July 2008 squeezed margins. Field crops, wineries on Pelee Island and along the lake shore, and the fishery round out the rural economy.

The communities differ in character. LaSalle was among the fastest-growing municipalities in the region; Amherstburg, at the mouth of the Detroit River, is a heritage town built around Fort Malden and its War of 1812 past; Lakeshore, taking in Belle River and Comber, mixes farming with commuter subdivisions; and Pelee Island, reachable only by ferry or small aircraft, is Canada's southernmost inhabited place. Trade across the river shapes almost everything else: border delays, security requirements introduced after 2001 and the long argument over a new crossing all bore on trucking, manufacturing and tourism.