Nickel Belt (provincial electoral district)

For the federal electoral district, see Nickel Belt.

Nickel Belt

Ontario electoral district
Nickel Belt in relation to other electoral districts in Northern Ontario
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
MPP	France Gélinas New Democratic
First contested	1955
Last contested	2025
Demographics
Population (2016) [1]	84,520
Electors (2018)	66,479
Area (km²)	25,548
Pop. density (per km²)	3.3
Census division(s)	Sudbury District, Greater Sudbury
Census subdivision(s)	Markstay-Warren, St. Charles, Killarney

Nickel Belt is a provincial electoral district located in the Canadian province of Ontario. It elects one member to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The district is located in Northern Ontario and includes much of the eastern and southern parts of the District of Sudbury, as well as most of Greater Sudbury outside the city's urban core. Communities include Lively, Onaping, Levack, Dowling, Chelmsford, Naughton, Azilda, Coniston, Wahnapitae, Garson, Val Caron, Val Thérèse, Hanmer and Capreol.

Boundary redistribution

Prior to redistribution in 1998, the district included all of Sudbury District except the southeastern portion, as well as the western half of what was then the Regional Municipality of Sudbury (Walden, Rayside-Balfour and Onaping Falls). The eastern half of the current Nickel Belt comprised the separate district of Sudbury East.

In 1998, Ontario was divided into the same electoral districts as those used for federal electoral purposes. They were redistributed whenever a readjustment took place at the federal level. This change resulted in Sudbury East being reabsorbed back into Nickel Belt.

In 2005, legislation was passed by the Legislature to divide Ontario into 107 electoral districts, beginning with the next provincial election in 2007. The eleven northern electoral districts, including Nickel Belt, are those defined for federal purposes in 1996, based on the 1991 census (except for a minor boundary adjustment). The 96 southern electoral districts are those defined for federal electoral purposes in 2003, based on the 2001 census. Without this legislation, the number of electoral districts in northern Ontario would have been reduced from eleven to ten. ^[2]

This change primarily affects the Walden area, which is part of the Sudbury riding federally but remains in Nickel Belt provincially, and the West Nipissing area, which is part of Nickel Belt federally but Timiskaming—Cochrane provincially.

Members of Provincial Parliament

Nickel Belt
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
Riding created
25th	1955–1959		Rhéal Bélisle	Progressive Conservative
26th	1959–1963
27th	1963–1967		Gaston Demers
28th	1967–1971
29th	1971–1975		Floyd Laughren	New Democratic
30th	1975–1977
31st	1977–1981
32nd	1981–1985
33rd	1985–1987
34th	1987–1990
35th	1990–1995
36th	1995–1998
	1998–1999		Blain Morin
37th	1999–2003		Shelley Martel
38th	2003–2007
39th	2007–2011		France Gélinas
40th	2011–2014
41st	2014–2018
42nd	2018–2022
43rd	2022–2025
44th	2025–present

Election results since 1977

Winning party in each polling division of Nickel Belt at the 2025 Ontario general election

v t e 2025 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	France Gélinas	17,123	48.37	–2.40
	Progressive Conservative	Randy Hazlett	12,629	35.67	+5.81
	Liberal	Natalie Labbée	3,874	10.94	+1.05
	New Blue	Paul Divincenzo	676	1.91	–3.04
	Green	Connie Hill	631	1.78	–1.22
	Libertarian	James Chretien	470	1.33	N/A
Total valid votes/expense limit			35,403	99.17	–0.39
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			298	0.83	+0.39
Turnout			35,701	51.62	+6.11
Eligible voters			69,156
	New Democratic hold		Swing		–4.11
Source: Elections Ontario [3] [4]

Winning party in each polling division of Nickel Belt at the 2022 Ontario general election

v t e 2022 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	France Gélinas	15,611	50.77	−12.73	$55,649
	Progressive Conservative	Randy Hazlett	9,181	29.86	+7.87	$23,127
	Liberal	Gilles Proulx	3,042	9.89	+1.17	$8,861
	New Blue	Melanie Savoie	1,522	4.95		$4,981
	Green	Glenys Babcock	921	3.00	−0.12	$0
	Ontario Party	Willy Schneider	470	1.53		$1,507
Total valid votes/expense limit			30,747	99.56	+0.58	$106,532
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			137	0.44	-0.58
Turnout			30,884	45.51	-11.49
Eligible voters			68,834
	New Democratic hold		Swing		−10.30
Source(s) "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-18. "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21.

2018 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	France Gélinas	23,157	63.50	+0.88	$40,029
	Progressive Conservative	Jo-Ann Cardinal	8,018	21.99	+10.07	$28,428
	Liberal	Tay Butt	3,182	8.73	-13.17	$8,353
	Green	Bill Crumplin	1,137	3.12	-0.45	$1,915
	Northern Ontario	Matthew Del Papa	373	1.02	N/A	none listed
	Libertarian	James Chretien	220	0.60	N/A	none listed
	Consensus Ontario	Kevin R. Brault	214	0.59	N/A	none listed
	None of the Above	Bailey Burch-Belanger	166	0.46	N/A	$0
Total valid votes			36,467	98.98
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			375	1.02
Turnout			36,842	55.42
Eligible voters			66,479
	New Democratic notional hold		Swing		–4.60
Source: Elections Ontario [5] [6] [7]

2014 general election redistributed results [8]
Party		Vote	%
	New Democratic	20,104	62.62
	Liberal	7,031	21.90
	Progressive Conservative	3,827	11.92
	Green	1,145	3.57

2014 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	France Gélinas	19,941	62.66	+7.77
	Liberal	James Tregonning	6,977	21.92	-2.33
	Progressive Conservative	Marck Blay	3,782	11.88	-6.47
	Green	Heather K. Dahlstrom	1,123	3.53	+1.03
Total valid votes			31,823	100.00
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+5.05
Source: Elections Ontario [9]

2011 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	France Gélinas	16,876	54.89	+8.26
	Liberal	Tony Ryma	7,434	24.25	-13.79
	Progressive Conservative	Paula Peroni	5,625	18.35	+8.29
	Green	Stephanie-Lynn Russell	770	2.50	-1.72
Total valid votes			30,762	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			96	0.31
Turnout			30,858	49.55
Eligible voters			62,276
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+11.03
Source: Elections Ontario [10]

2007 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	France Gélinas	15,126	46.63	+0.11
	Liberal	Ron Dupuis	12,341	38.04	-0.60
	Progressive Conservative	Renée Germain	3,264	10.06	-3.43
	Green	Fred Twilley	1,368	4.22	+2.87
	Family Coalition	Richard St-Denis	341	1.05
Total valid votes			32,440	100.00

2003 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Shelley Martel	16,567	46.52	+4.57
	Liberal	Alex McCauley	13,759	38.64	+9.89
	Progressive Conservative	Dave Kilgour	4,804	13.49	-15.81
	Green	Robert Nevin	479	1.35
Total valid votes			35,609	100.00

1999 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Shelley Martel	14,833	41.95	+1.08
	Progressive Conservative	Gerry Courtemanche	10,359	29.30	-1.51
	Liberal	Ron Dupuis	10,165	28.75	+0.43
Total valid votes			35,357	100.00

Ontario provincial by-election, October 1998, resignation of Floyd Laughren
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Blain Morin	5,537	40.88	-5.66
	Progressive Conservative	Gerry Courtemanche	4,173	30.81	+11.60
	Liberal	Frank Madigan	3,836	28.32	-3.93
Total valid votes			13,546	100.00

1995 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Floyd Laughren	8,007	46.54	-12.00
	Liberal	Betty Rheaume	5,549	32.25	+12.98
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Deburger	3,305	19.21	+13.51
	Independent	Michel Chartrand	225	1.31
	Natural Law	Grace Tancock	119	0.69
Total valid votes			17,205	100.00

1990 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Floyd Laughren	9,925	58.54	+0.33
	Liberal	Betty Rheaume	3,267	19.27	-3.56
	Confederation of Regions	Gren Rogers	2,796	16.49
	Progressive Conservative	Paul Demers	967	5.70	-13.26
Total valid votes			16,955	100.00

1987 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Floyd Laughren	9,849	58.21	+5.84
	Liberal	Leo Pevato	3,863	22.83	+9.58
	Progressive Conservative	Evelyn Dutrisac	3,208	18.96	-15.31
Total valid votes			16,920	100.00

1985 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Floyd Laughren	8,912	52.37	-2.48
	Progressive Conservative	Evelyn Dutrisac	5,849	34.37	+21.94
	Liberal	Trudy Bolduc	2,255	13.25	-19.47
Total valid votes			17,016	100.00

1981 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Floyd Laughren	8,451	54.85	-2.60
	Liberal	Elmer Sopha	5,041	32.72	+14.12
	Progressive Conservative	Andre Lalande	1,915	12.43	-11.52
Total valid votes			15,407	100.00

1977 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Floyd Laughren	9,410	57.45
	Progressive Conservative	Marty McAllister	3,923	23.95
	Liberal	Paul Adam	3,046	18.60
Total valid votes			16,379	100.00

2007 electoral reform referendum

2007 Ontario electoral reform referendum
Side		Votes	%
	First Past the Post	21,313	68.9
	Mixed member proportional	9,609	31.1
	Total valid votes	30,912	100.0

Notes

1. "Elections Ontario". voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca. Retrieved 2025-05-25.
2. Elections Ontario web site, “New Electoral Boundaries” Archived 2006-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Nickel Belt Unofficial Election Results". Elections Ontario. 28 February 2025. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
4. "VOTE TOTALS FROM OFFICIAL TABULATION" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 3 March 2025. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
5. "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
6. "Political Financing and Party Information". Elections Ontario . Retrieved 4 March 2025.
7. "Data Explorer". Elections Ontario . Retrieved 4 March 2025.
8. "71 - Nickel Belt".
9. Elections Ontario (2014). "General Election Results by District 056, NIckel Belt". Archived from the original on 14 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
10. Elections Ontario (2011). "Official return from the records / Rapports des registres officiels - Nickel Belt" (PDF). Retrieved 1 June 2014.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

Sources

• Elections Ontario Results
  • 1999 results
  • 2003 results
  • 2007 results
• Map of riding for 2018 election

46°58′N81°31′W / 46.96°N 81.51°W / 46.96; -81.51