Huron, and later Huron–Middlesex, was an electoral district in Midwestern Ontario, Canada formerly represented in the provincial Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Throughout both its provincial existence, the district had within it the majority of Huron county's population, with the county's major population centres such as Goderich, Seaforth (now part of Huron East), Clinton (now part of Central Huron), and Exeter (now part of South Huron) in the district at all time. In the early 1970s, portions of Middlesex County were added to both the federal and provincial district, leading to the name change to Huron–Middlesex at both levels.
Upon the elimination of the district in 1996 it was absorbed by districts named Huron–Bruce. The Huron—Bruce (provincial electoral district) in the other hand was created at the same time as the Huron provincial district and had co-existed with Huron for more than five of Huron's six-decade existence, each returning a member to the 19th to 33rd Ontario parliaments.
Members of Provincial Parliament
Huron–Middlesex
Huron
Evolution of geography Provincial The Huron provincial electoral district was created by the Representation Act, 1933. Huron Country saw its representation reduced previously in 1925 from three to two seats. The 1933 redistribution further reduced its representation to one and a half seats through the elimination of Huron South and Huron North and the creation of the new Huron and Huron—Bruce electoral districts. The 1933 act divides the communities in Huron county as follows: (grouped by modern day municipalities created in 2001 as noted in brackets, for ease of reference only) Huron: Goderich (now Goderich) Clinton and Hullett (now Central Huron) Hay, Stanley, Hensall (now Bluewater) Seaforth, McKillop, Tuckersmith (Huron East) Exeter, Stephen, Usborne (South Huron) Huron—Bruce: Ashfield, Colborne, Wawanosh West (Ashfield–Colborne–Wawanosh) Howick (Howick) Morris, Turnberry (Morris-Turnberry) Brussels, Grey (Huron East) Blyth, Wawanosh East, Wingham (North Huron) plus other communities in Bruce County
The distribution of communities remained the same following the redistribution in 1954. The redistribution of 1966 specifically named two additional communities, Zurich and Bayfield (both now in Bluewater) in Huron, that were not mentioned before, but made no real change to the geography of these electoral district.
The 1975 redistribution brought substantive changes to the electoral district, adding various community form Middlexsex County to the district while transferring McKillop and Hullett away to Huron—Bruce The communities assigned to the two district after 1975 were as follows: Huron-Middlesex Goderich Hay, Stanley, Hensall, Bayfield, Zurich (Bluewater) Exeter, Stephen, Usborne (South Huron) Seaforth, Tuckersmith (Huron East) Clinton (Central Huron) (Communities in Middlsex) McGillivray, East Williams, West Williams, Parkhill, Ailsa Craig (North Middlesex) Adelaide (Adelaide-Metcalfe) Lucan, Biddulph (Lucan-Biddulph) Huron-Bruce Ashfield, Colborne, Wawanosh West (Ashfield–Colborne–Wawanosh) Howick Morris, Turnberry (Morris-Turnberry) Brussels, Grey, (Huron East) Blyth, Wawanosh East, Wingham (North Huron) (Central Huron) plus other communities in Bruce County ()
In 1986, Huron's representation was further reduced to a single seat. The provincial district of Huron–Bruce was eliminated and the electoral district name was reverted back to Huron with the entire country assigned to it.
The provincial electoral district of Huron was tagged for elimination in 1996 with the enactment of the Fewer Politicians Act, 1996, which prescribed the adoption of federal electoral boundary in a subsequent election. The Huron riding was slated to merge with neighbouring Bruce, leading to the head-to-head nomination battle between two Progressive Conservative MPPs, Huron's Helen Johns and Bruce's Barbara Fisher, from which Johns emerged as the winner.
Election results Huron (1987–1999)
Huron (1934–1975)
References
Sources Boundaries definitions: