London—Fanshawe, ON — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

London—Fanshawe

The riding took in the east and southeast of the City of London. From the eastern city limit its boundary followed Highway 401 west to Exeter Road, ran west and north by way of White Oak Road to Southdale Road East, west again to Wharncliffe Road South, north to Commissioners Road East, then east along Commissioners and a Canadian National rail line to Highbury Avenue North, up Highbury to Fanshawe Park Road East and northeast from there back to the city line. Inside it lay the industrial belt along Oxford Street East, the airport lands, Fanshawe College and the postwar and newer subdivisions of the city's south end.

Candidates

Irene Mathyssen (NDP) — Mathyssen had held the seat since 2006 and was the only New Democrat representing the London area. Born in London in 1951, she holds an English and drama degree and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Western Ontario, and taught English at Saunders Secondary School. She served as the member of provincial parliament for Middlesex from 1990 to 1995, first as government whip, then as parliamentary assistant to the minister of the environment, and from October 1994 as a minister without portfolio responsible for culture, tourism and recreation in Bob Rae's cabinet. She contested this riding in 1997 and again in 2004 before winning it. In the 39th Parliament she was the New Democratic critic for housing and for the status of women.

Mary Lou Ambrogio (Conservative) — Ambrogio was self-employed and lived in London.

Jacquie Gauthier (Liberal) — Gauthier worked as a radio host in the city.

Daniel O'Neail (Green Party) — O'Neail worked as a supervisor in London.

Leonard Vanderhoeven, a professional engineer from Woodstock, also appeared on the ballot for the Christian Heritage Party.

About the Riding

Fanshawe College gave the riding its name and one of its largest institutions. The main campus, north of Oxford Street East near Highbury Avenue, taught applied arts, technology, health sciences and skilled trades to students drawn from across southwestern Ontario, and the neighbourhoods around it had been reshaped by student housing demand.

Oxford Street East formed the riding's industrial spine. General Dynamics Land Systems–Canada built light armoured vehicles at 1991 Oxford Street East, serving as the corporation's centre of expertise for that product line; its order book depended on Canadian and allied defence procurement, giving the Afghanistan mission a direct local dimension that autumn. Northeast of the plant, Diamond Aircraft assembled light aircraft beside London International Airport with a workforce in the hundreds, exposed to a general aviation market that weakened as orders thinned through 2008.

The south end of the riding — White Oaks, Westminster, Glen Cairn and Pond Mills — held a large share of London's more modest housing stock, and residents there worked in warehousing, retail, food processing and the auto parts operations scattered between London and St. Thomas. That exposure mattered in 2008. Elgin County, immediately south of the city, was recording the sharpest rise in social assistance caseloads in the country as its factories cut back, and London's own manufacturers were trimming shifts before the September market collapse arrived.

Federal questions in the riding accordingly centred on work: employment insurance eligibility for people with broken employment records, retraining money for laid-off workers, pension protection where employers were in trouble, and whether Ottawa would step in to support the auto sector. Housing was the second theme. Mathyssen had tabled a private member's bill on housing in November 2006, a file with direct application in a riding holding a large share of the city's rental apartment stock and social housing.