St. Catharines, ON — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

St. Catharines

Only part of the Niagara city of St. Catharines sat inside this riding. The boundary took everything north and east of a line running from the western city limit along St. Paul Street West and St. Paul Crescent, then along the old Welland Canal, Carter Creek and the Canadian National rail lines down to the southern city limit — leaving the southwest of the city to neighbouring seats. The riding therefore held the downtown, the north-end residential districts, the Lake Ontario shoreline and the canal frontage. The 2006 census put the population at 112,869, up slightly over five years.

Candidates

Rick Dykstra (Conservative) — Dykstra was defending a seat he had taken from the Liberals in 2006. Born in Grimsby in 1966 to Dutch immigrant parents, he studied political science at Brock University and later completed a project management certificate at York University. He sat for St. Patrick's ward on city council between 1991 and 1997, chairing the finance committee for most of those years, and finished second when he ran for mayor in 1997. He ran the family landscaping business for twelve years, and between 1998 and 2002 worked in the Ontario government as a senior policy adviser and as chief of staff to John Baird at Community and Social Services.

Walt Lastewka (Liberal) — Lastewka was seeking a rematch. He had represented St. Catharines from 1993 to 2006 and was appointed to the Privy Council for his service in the Chrétien and Martin governments. Born in Montreal in 1940, he took a diploma at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1963 and joined General Motors as an industrial engineer the same year, moving into management before retiring in 1992. He had chaired the Oshawa-Whitby United Way and was a trustee of Brock University.

George N. Addison (NDP) — Addison, a chaplain, carried the New Democratic banner.

Jim Fannon (Green Party) — Fannon worked in real estate and stood for the Green Party.

Sam Hammond, a journalist, stood for the Communist Party.

About the Riding

The Welland Canal defines the city's eastern flank and much of its identity. Its eight locks lift ships more than ninety metres over the Niagara Escarpment between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and a shipping season running from spring to late December sustains pilotage, stevedoring and marine servicing work. Lock 3, with its viewing platform and museum, is one of the region's most visited attractions.

General Motors had been the city's industrial backbone for a century. That era was ending. In November 2005 GM announced that its Ontario Street powertrain components plant would cease production in 2008, one of a dozen North American closures in that round, and by the time the writ was issued collapsing vehicle sales and frozen credit markets had pushed the Detroit automakers into a crisis that put every Canadian assembly and parts operation in doubt. The auto-parts firms scattered through Niagara depended on the same orders. Vacant and contaminated industrial land awaiting remediation was already a planning problem for the city.

The alternatives were growing but smaller. Brock University, founded in 1964 on the escarpment in the city's south end, lay just outside the riding boundary but pulled thousands of students and staff into the local economy. Health care was anchored inside the riding at the Niagara Health System's St. Catharines General Hospital on Queenston Street and Hotel Dieu on Ontario Street. Grape growing across the Niagara peninsula and tourist traffic bound for Niagara Falls supplied a seasonal service sector, and the downtown was the subject of redevelopment plans aimed at arts and post-secondary uses.

Federal issues therefore turned on industrial adjustment: what Ottawa would do for the auto sector, employment insurance and retraining for displaced workers, money for canal infrastructure and brownfield cleanup, and support for post-secondary education.