Haldimand—Norfolk, ON — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Haldimand—Norfolk

Facing Lake Erie across its whole southern edge, Haldimand—Norfolk combined Norfolk County with Haldimand County, less the Six Nations and New Credit reserves, which fall in the neighbouring riding of Brant. It covered roughly 2,860 square kilometres of flat and gently rolling farmland and held about 107,800 people at the 2006 census. Simcoe is the largest town, with Caledonia, Dunnville, Port Dover, Delhi, Hagersville, Cayuga, Waterford, Jarvis and Port Rowan making up the rest.

Candidates

Diane Finley (Conservative) — Finley was raised in Norfolk County and holds a bachelor's degree and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. Elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2006, she entered cabinet in February 2006 as Minister of Human Resources and Social Development and moved to Citizenship and Immigration in January 2007. Her time there was dominated by an application backlog approaching 900,000 files and by the immigration amendments in the 2008 budget bill, which let the minister set processing priorities for applications filed after 27 February 2008 and which opposition parties and refugee advocates contested through the spring and summer. Her husband, Doug Finley, was the Conservative Party's national campaign director.

Eric Hoskins (Liberal) — A physician who grew up in Simcoe and studied at McMaster and Oxford, Hoskins was senior policy adviser to Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy from 1997 to 2000. He helped establish War Child Canada with his wife, Dr. Samantha Nutt, and had been its president since 2001. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006 and invested in April 2008.

Ian Nichols (NDP) — A transportation engineer from Simcoe, Nichols carried the New Democratic banner.

Gary McHale (Independent) — McHale ran on the single issue that had dominated Caledonia since 2006. From October of that year he organised public rallies over the Ontario Provincial Police's handling of the Douglas Creek Estates occupation and argued that policing in Haldimand County had not been applied evenly. His candidacy put that dispute directly on the ballot.

Stephana Johnston (Green Party) — Johnston, retired and living in Norfolk County, ran for the Greens. Steven Elgersma stood for the Christian Heritage Party.

About the Riding

Two economic transitions ran underneath this campaign. The first was tobacco. Norfolk's sandy loam had made it the centre of Canadian flue-cured production for generations, and the industry's decline had been grinding through Delhi, Simcoe and Waterford for two decades. On 1 August 2008 the agriculture minister announced at the Delhi tobacco auction a $286-million Tobacco Transition Program to buy quota back from growers leaving the sector, plus $15 million for community development. Its terms were argued over at every farm meeting, and growers already moving into ginseng, asparagus, apples and sweet potatoes were doing so on borrowed money.

The second was steel. The Lake Erie Works at Nanticoke, opened by Stelco in 1980 and acquired by United States Steel when it bought the bankrupt company in 2007, employed roughly 1,400 workers in United Steelworkers Local 8782. Alongside it sat Ontario Power Generation's Nanticoke Generating Station, then the largest coal-fired plant in North America and slated for phase-out under provincial policy. With vehicle sales falling sharply through the autumn, the security of both operations was an open question.

Caledonia was the third thread. Members of Six Nations of the Grand River occupied the Douglas Creek Estates subdivision in February 2006; Ontario bought the land from the developer and halted construction, and in March the federal Indian affairs minister appointed a Western law professor to conduct a fact-finding mission. Talks among Canada, Ontario and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council ran through 2007 and 2008 without settling it. Port Dover's fishing fleet and tourist trade, and Highways 3 and 6, round out a riding where federal decisions land directly.