Oakwood (electoral district)

Oakwood

Ontario electoral district
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
District created	1975
District abolished	1997
First contested	1975
Last contested	1999
Demographics
Population
Electors
Area (km²)
Census divisions	Toronto
Census subdivisions	Toronto

Oakwood was a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada. It was created for the 1975 provincial election, and was retained until redistribution in 1999. It was abolished into Davenport, Eglinton—Lawrence, York South—Weston and St. Paul's. Oakwood was located in York, which was previously part of Metropolitan Toronto and is now part of the City of Toronto.

Oakwood was a fairly safe seat for the New Democratic Party for most of its existence, although the Liberals won in 1987 and 1995. Both Liberal MPPs, Chaviva Hošek and Mike Colle, served in the Ontario cabinet at one time or another.

The longest-serving member for Oakwood was Tony Grande, who held the seat from 1975 to 1987. Tony Rizzo, elected in 1990, was forced to sit as an Independent MP for twenty months after it was disclosed that his construction firm had been charged with violating Ontario's labour code in 1989. He returned to caucus in 1992.^[1]

The riding had large Italian and Portuguese communities, and there was a significant increase in Caribbean immigrants during the 1980s.^[2]

Members of Provincial Parliament

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
30th	1975-1977		Tony Grande	New Democrat
31st	1977-1981
32nd	1981-1985
33rd	1985-1987
34th	1987-1990		Chaviva Hošek	Liberal
35th	1990-1990		Tony Rizzo	New Democrat
	1990-1992			Independent
	1992-1995			New Democrat
36th	1995-1999		Michael Colle	Liberal
Merged into Davenport, Eglinton—Lawrence, York South—Weston and St. Paul's (1999)

References

1. ^ "New no-fault insurance plan to be ready by January", Toronto Star, 10 September 1992, A14; Catherine Thompson, "Ferguson not a priority with NDP colleagues", Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 17 March 1993, A1.
2. ^ John Ferri, "Oakwood issues are sewers, roads not the leaders", Toronto Star, 9 August 1987, A6.