Ontario (provincial electoral district)

Ontario was a provincial riding in the Canadian province of Ontario. Called Ontario South until 1933, it was active from 1867 to 1975. For its entire existence, the riding contained parts of or all of Ontario County, a now-defunct county which comprised most, but not all, of the contemporary Regional Municipality of Durham, including the municipalities of Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering and Whitby. After 1955, however, a separate riding called Oshawa was created to serve the city of Oshawa, Ajax and parts of Pickering and Whitby, while the Ontario riding continued to serve the more rural areas in the county. In 1966 a new Ontario South was created to represent Ajax, Pickering and Whitby. The remainder of the riding was divided into the new ridings of Durham West, Durham East and Durham—York in 1975.

Ontario

Ontario electoral district
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
District created	1867
District abolished	1975
First contested	1867
Last contested	1971
Demographics
Census divisions	Ontario County
Census subdivisions	Ajax (until 1954), Oshawa (until 1954), Pickering (until 1967), Reach Township (from 1886), Scugog Township (from 1886). Whitby (until 1967)

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Assembly	Years	Member		Party
Ontario South
1st	1867–1871		William McGill	Liberal
2nd	1871–1875		Abram Farewell
3rd	1875–1879		Nicholas W. Brown	Conservative
4th	1879–1883		John Dryden	Liberal
5th	1883–1886
6th	1886–1890
7th	1890–1894
8th	1894–1898
9th	1898–1898		Charles Calder	Conservative
	1898–1902		John Dryden	Liberal
10th	1902–1905
11th	1905–1908		Charles Calder	Conservative
12th	1908–1911
13th	1911–1914		W. E. N. Sinclair	Liberal
14th	1914–1919		Charles Calder	Conservative
15th	1919–1923		W. E. N. Sinclair	Liberal
16th	1923–1926
17th	1926–1929
18th	1929–1934
Ontario
19th	1934–1937		W. E. N. Sinclair	Liberal
20th	1937–1943		Gordon Daniel Conant
21st	1943–1945		Arthur Henry Williams	Co-operative Commonwealth
22nd	1945–1948		Thomas Kelso Creighton	Progressive Conservative
23rd	1948–1951		T.D. Thomas	Co-operative Commonwealth
24th	1951–1955
25th	1955–1959		Matthew Dymond	Progressive Conservative
26th	1959–1963
27th	1963–1967
28th	1967–1971
29th	1971–1975
Merged into Durham West, Durham East and Durham North after 1975

Election results (1934-1963)

1934 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	W. E. N. Sinclair	11,409	56.63
	Conservative	Ernest L. Marks	6,363	31.58
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Andrew Glen	2,375	11.79

1937 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Gordon Daniel Conant	9,834	44.13
	Conservative	Grant L. Bird	7,775	34.89
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Finley M. Dafoe	4,598	20.63
	Socialist Labour	E. G. Forest	79	0.35

1943 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Arthur Henry Williams	8,745	44.07
	Liberal	Jacob C. Anderson	5,575	28.09
	Progressive Conservative	George Hart	5,525	27.84

1945 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Thomas Kelso Creighton	9,130	35.49
	Liberal	W. H. Gifford	8,051	31.30
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Arthur Henry Williams	7,693	29.90
	Labour	W. R. Cambers	852	3.31

1948 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Tommy Thomas	11,758	42.23
	Progressive Conservative	Thomas Kelso Creighton	9,027	32.42
	Liberal	Wilfred E. Dunn	7,058	25.35

1951 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Tommy Thomas	12,054	40.17
	Progressive Conservative	Michael Starr	9,876	32.92
	Liberal	Walter C. Thomson	7,806	26.02
	Independent	Evelyn M. Bateman	268	0.89

1955 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Matthew Dymond	7,248	49.97
	Liberal	Thomas Harris	5,366	36.99
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Roy Scott	1,892	13.04

1959 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Matthew Dymond	9,018	59.67
	Liberal	Thomas Harris	4,196	27.76
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Thomas Edwards	1,900	12.57

1963 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Matthew Dymond	9,903	60.29
	Liberal	Samuel Hollingsworth	4,298	26.17
	New Democratic	Thomas Edwards	2,224	13.54

References

• Centennial Edition of a History of the Electoral Districts, Legislatures and Ministries of the Province of Ontario 1867-1967