Guelph (federal electoral district)

Guelph (formerly Guelph—Wellington) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1979. This riding has had a Liberal MP since 1993.

From 2008 until his decision not to run in 2015, the riding's parliamentary seat was held by Liberal MP Frank Valeriote. Valeriote had announced his intention to retire on November 15, 2014. The Liberal candidate in the 2015 federal election in the riding was Lloyd Longfield, who previously served as president of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. Longfield was first elected on October 19, 2015 and reelected on October 21, 2019.

History

Guelph riding was created in 1976 from parts of Halton—Wentworth, Wellington and Wellington—Grey ridings. It consisted initially of the Townships of Eramosa, Guelph, Pilkington and Puslinch and the City of Guelph in the County of Wellington.

The electoral district was abolished in 1987 when it was merged into Guelph—Wellington riding, adding Erin to the existing boundaries. In 1996, Erin and Pilkington was removed from the riding.

In 2003, a new riding of Guelph was created again, consisting solely of the City of Guelph.

This riding gained a fraction of territory from Wellington—Halton Hills during the 2012 electoral redistribution.

A so-called "robocall" or voter suppression scandal occurred in this riding during the 2011 federal election, when hundreds of Guelph voters who were opposition supporters received automated calls, or 'robocalls', claiming to be from Elections Canada on election day, May 2, 2011. These calls directed them to the wrong polling stations. While reports of such calls were also alleged in five other ridings, later described as election fraud by a Federal Court judge, there was insufficient evidence to support charges in those ridings. The "robocall" incidents were referred to as the "Pierre Poutine" scandal because a cellphone in the affair was registered to a fictitious Pierre Poutine of Separatist Street in Joliette, Quebec.

On June 2, 2014, Michael Sona, the former director of communications for the Conservative candidate in Guelph was charged with "wilfully preventing or endeavouring to prevent an elector from voting". Sona was found guilty on November 14, 2014 and was sentenced to nine months in jail plus twelve months of probation. During the trial, Justice Hearn agreed with the Crown prosecutor's allegation that Sona had likely not acted alone. Sona was released from the Maplehurst Correctional Complex on December 1, 2014, on bail after serving twelve days, pending his appeal of the sentence. He did not appeal the conviction.

Based on another incident during the 2011 federal election campaign, Liberal MP Frank Valeriote’s riding association was fined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules. As reported by the National Post, this fine was based on a robocall message that anonymously attacked the Conservative opponent's position on abortion. The call failed to identify its originator and did not give a callback number. Under a settlement agreement with Valeriote, the CRTC assessed a Template:CAD fine.

Following the 2022 Canadian federal electoral redistribution, the riding will lose the neighbourhoods of University Village, Kortright Hills, Clairfields and Westminster to the new riding of Wellington—Halton Hills North. This change will come into effect upon the call of the 2025 Canadian federal election.

Political geography

In 2008, the election in Guelph was a four-way one between the NDP, Greens, the Tories and the Liberals, who came out on top. The NDP only won a small handful of polls in the centre part of the city, which was also where the Greens did well. In fact, the Greens dominated the central part of the city. The Tories did well on the fringes of the city, mostly along the northern borders and in the far south of the city. The Liberals won the southern and northern and western parts of the city. In 2011, despite a Conservative majority that saw the Liberals have their worst result ever, they were able to retain the seat by a larger margin as the substantial Green voteshare fell by almost 15 points. In 2015, Liberal voteshare once again rose, to almost 50%. In 2019, the Greens made a major comeback to finish in second ahead of the Conservatives with 26%. However, the Liberals retained the seat with a comfortable 15 point margin.

Demographics

According to the 2021 Canadian census

• Languages: 74.5% English, 1.5% Punjabi, 1.4% Mandarin, 1.3% Italian, 1.2% Spanish, 1.2% Tagalog, 1.2% Vietnamese, 1.1% French
• Religions: 49.7% Christian (23.9% Catholic, 4.1% United Church, 3.9% Anglican, 2.2% Presbyterian, 2.0% Christian Orthodox, 1.1% Baptist, 12.5% Other), 4.5% Muslim, 2.7% Hindu, 1.5% Buddhist, 1.5% Sikh, 38.7% None
• Median income: $44,400 (2020)
• Average income: $55,200 (2020)

Panethnic groups in Guelph (2011−2021)

Panethnic group	2021		2016		2011
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
EuropeanTemplate:Efn	103,675		103,725		99,680
South Asian	10,480		6,500		4,965
Southeast AsianTemplate:Efn	6,995		5,285		4,855
African	5,940		2,890		1,695
East AsianTemplate:Efn	4,860		4,710		3,775
Middle EasternTemplate:Efn	3,620		2,290		1,615
Indigenous	2,220		1,910		1,955
Latin American	2,015		1,345		1,155
Other/multiracialTemplate:Efn	2,045		1,435		860
Total responses	141,835		130,085		120,555
Total population	143,740		131,794		121,688
Notes: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses. Demographics based on 2012 Canadian federal electoral redistribution riding boundaries.

2023 representation

According to the 2021 Canadian census

Languages: 78.9% English, 1.7% French, 1.4% Italian, 1.3% Tagalog, 1.3% Vietnamese, 1.2% Spanish, 1.1% Punjabi, 1.1% Tigrigna
Race: 75.0% White, 6.2% South Asian, 4.4% Black, 2.8% Filipino, 2.4% Southeast Asian, 2.2% Chinese, 1.8% Indigenous, 1.3% Latin American, 1.2% West Asian, 1.0% Arab
Religions: 49.9% Christian (23.5% Catholic, 4.2% United Church, 4.0% Anglican, 2.3% Presbyterian, 2.1% Christian Orthodox, 1.1% Baptist, 12.7% other), 3.9% Muslim, 2.4% Hindu, 1.5% Buddhist, 1.2% Sikh, 39.7% none
Median income: $43,600 (2020)
Average income: $53,550 (2020)

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following members of the Canadian House of Commons:

Election results

Template:Graph:Chart

Graph of election results in Guelph/Guelph—Wellington (minor parties that never got 2% of the vote or didn't run consistently are omitted)

2021

2021 federal election redistributed results
Party		Vote	%
Template:Canadian party colour |	Liberal	23,882	41.37
Template:Canadian party colour |	Conservative	13,536	23.45
Template:Canadian party colour |	New Democratic	12,712	22.02
Template:Canadian party colour |	Green	4,530	7.85
Template:Canadian party colour |	People's	2,692	4.66
Template:Canadian party colour |	Others	381	0.66

2015

2011 federal election redistributed results
Party		Vote	%
Template:Canadian party colour |	Liberal	25,643	43.30
Template:Canadian party colour |	Conservative	19,460	32.86
Template:Canadian party colour |	New Democratic	9,906	16.73
Template:Canadian party colour |	Green	3,628	6.13
Template:Canadian party colour |	Others	583	0.98

2008

The call for a federal election to be held on October 14, 2008 occurred when Guelph was already in the throes of a by-election scheduled for September 8, which was intended to replace retiring Liberal MP Brenda Chamberlain. As a result of this, the by-election was cancelled, and the four major candidates running opted to represent their parties again in the federal election. They included: Frank Valeriote, a local lawyer with thorough community experience who had garnered the Liberal nomination in an upset over Marva Wisdom; Gloria Kovach, a popular city councillor and former President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities who was controversially handed the Conservative nomination after incumbent nominee Brent Barr was ousted; Tom King, a renowned author and Native rights activist who received several high-profile endorsements after his NDP nomination; and Mike Nagy, a long-time Green Party spokesperson.

Initially in Guelph, optimism ran high that either the NDP, Green Party, or Conservative Party could procure the seat, as many felt that the nominees might benefit from the relative unpopularity of Stéphane Dion's Liberals and the gaffes made by prior Liberal MP Brenda Chamberlain, who had failed to show up to a number of Parliamentary votes and retired before the end of her term in office. Ultimately, however, Frank Valeriote was able to narrowly garner the seat over star candidate Gloria Kovach, who lost by around three percent and decreased the margin of defeat for her party. Noteworthy, too, was the increase in the electoral returns of the Green Party, who managed to fare better than the federal NDP in Guelph for the first time, finishing with twenty-one percent of the vote – almost three times what they had received in the 2006 election. In terms of distance from winning position, Guelph was the Green Party's best result in the country in 2008. Template:2008 Canadian federal election/Guelph

2004

Note: Conservative vote is compared to the total of the Canadian Alliance vote and Progressive Conservative vote in 2000 election.

1988–2003

The riding was part of the riding known as Guelph—Wellington from 1988 to 2003. It was created in 1987 to include parts of Wellington—Dufferin—Simcoe electoral districts.

Guelph—Wellington initially consisted of the City of Guelph, the Village of Erin, and the townships of Eramosa, Erin, Guelph, Pilkington and Puslinch in the County of Wellington.

In 1996, the riding was re-defined to consist of the City of Guelph and the townships of Eramosa, Guelph and Puslinch before being abolished in 2003, and split into the current electoral district and Wellington—Halton Hills electoral district. Template:2000 Canadian federal election/Guelph—Wellington

Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to the Reform vote in 1997 election. Template:1997 Canadian federal election/Guelph—Wellington Template:1993 Canadian federal election/Guelph—Wellington Template:1988 Canadian federal election/Guelph—Wellington

See also

• List of Canadian electoral districts
• Historical federal electoral districts of Canada

References

• Template:SCref

External links

• 1976-87 Riding history from the Library of Parliament
• 2003-2008 Riding history from the Library of Parliament
• 2011 Results from Elections Canada
• Campaign expense data from Elections Canada