Niagara Centre (provincial electoral district)

For the federal electoral district, see Niagara Centre.

Niagara Centre (renamed to Welland from 2006 to 2018) is a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, represented from 1867 until 1977 and again since 2007 (under different boundaries) in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Its population in 2006 was 112,875.

Niagara Centre

Ontario electoral district
Niagara Centre in relation to southern Ontario ridings
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
MPP	Jeff Burch New Democratic
District created	2006
First contested	2007
Last contested	2025
Demographics
Population (2016)	109,070
Electors (2018)	88,287
Area (km²)	490
Pop. density (per km²)	222.6
Census division(s)	Niagara
Census subdivision(s)	Welland, Thorold, Port Colborne, St. Catharines

A new riding of Niagara Centre was created before the 1999 election from small parts of the Lincoln and St. Catharines—Brock ridings, and almost all of the Welland—Thorold riding. The current electoral district was created in 2003: 74.9% of the riding came from Niagara Centre riding, 22.5% from Erie—Lincoln and 2.7% from Niagara Falls riding. The name was changed to Welland during redistricting in 2006. In 2018, the name was changed back to Niagara Centre.

Geography

From 1967 to 1975, the southern part of the riding was covered by the Welland South district.

The pre-2018 Welland riding consisted of the cities of Welland, Thorold, Port Colborne, and the part of the City of St. Catharines lying south of a line drawn from the western city limit east along St. Paul Street West, northeast along St. Paul Crescent, east and south along Twelve Mile Creek, and east along Glendale Avenue to the eastern city limit.^[1]

Members of Provincial Parliament

Assembly	Years	Member		Party
Welland
1st	1867–1871		William Beatty	Liberal
2nd	1871–1874		James Currie
3rd	1875–1879
4th	1879–1883		Daniel Near
5th	1883–1886		James E. Morin
6th	1886–1890
7th	1890–1894		William McCleary	Conservative
8th	1894–1898		William Manley German	Liberal
9th	1898–1900
	1900–1902		John Franklin Gross
10th	1902–1904
11th	1905–1908		Evan Eugene Fraser	Conservative
12th	1908–1911
13th	1911–1914
14th	1914–1919		Donald Sharpe
15th	1919–1923		Robert Cooper	Liberal
16th	1923–1926		Marshall Vaughan	Conservative
17th	1926–1929
18th	1929–1934
19th	1934–1937		Edward James Anderson	Liberal
20th	1937–1943
21st	1943–1945		Howard Elis Brown	Co-operative Commonwealth
22nd	1945–1948		Thomas Henry Lewis	Progressive Conservative
23rd	1948–1951		Harold William Walker	Liberal
24th	1951–1955		Ellis Morningstar	Progressive Conservative
25th	1955–1959
26th	1959–1963
27th	1963–1967
28th	1967–1971
29th	1971–1975
30th	1975–1977		Mel Swart	New Democratic
Welland—Thorold
31st	1977–1981		Mel Swart	New Democratic
32nd	1981–1985
33rd	1985–1987
34th	1987–1988
	1988–1990		Peter Kormos
35th	1990–1995
36th	1995–1999
Niagara Centre Created from Welland—Thorold, Lincoln and St. Catharines—Brock
37th	1999–2003		Peter Kormos	New Democratic
38th	2003–2007
Welland
39th	2007–2011		Peter Kormos	New Democratic
40th	2011–2014		Cindy Forster
41st	2014–2018
Niagara Centre
42nd	2018–2022		Jeff Burch	New Democratic
43rd	2022–2025
44th	2025–present

Source: Legislative Assembly of Ontario^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

Election results

Niagara Centre, 2018–

Winning party in each polling division of Niagara Centre at the 2025 Ontario general election

v t e 2025 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Jeff Burch	20,408	42.29	+2.59
	Progressive Conservative	Bill Steele	18,073	37.27	–0.36	$92,858
	Liberal	Damien O'Brien	7,143	14.74	+1.41
	Green	Natashia Bergen	1,261	2.60	–1.93
	New Blue	Jimmy Jackson	857	1.77	–0.97
	Ontario Party	Darryl Weinberg	513	1.06	–0.97
	Ontario Alliance	Angela Browne	130	0.27	N/A
Total valid votes/expense limit			48,483	99.28	–0.25	$162,196
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			353	0.72	+0.25
Turnout			48,836	49.59	+6.22
Eligible voters			98,486
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+1.48
Source: Elections Ontario[22][23]

Winning party in each polling division of Niagara Centre at the 2022 Ontario general election

v t e 2022 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Jeff Burch	16,360	39.70	–4.53	$98,721
	Progressive Conservative	Fred Davies	15,506	37.63	+0.12	$60,037
	Liberal	Terry Flynn	5,492	13.33	+1.50	$12,584
	Green	Michelle McArthur	1,865	4.53	+0.84	$6
	New Blue	Gary Dumelie	1,148	2.79	N/A	$1,586
	Ontario Party	Vincent Gircys	837	2.03	N/A	$0
Total valid votes			41,208	99.53	+0.90
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			194	0.47	–0.90
Turnout			41,402	43.37	–12.76
Eligible voters			95,459
	New Democratic hold		Swing		–2.32
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. "Political Financing and Party Information". Elections Ontario. Retrieved 4 March 2025.

2018 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Jeff Burch	21,618	44.23	−3.65	$45,730
	Progressive Conservative	April Jeffs	18,333	37.51	+10.87	$4,614
	Liberal	Benoit Mercier	5,779	11.82	−8.60	$6,184
	Green	Joe Dias	1,803	3.69	−0.34	$0
	None of the Above	Joe Crawford	623	1.27	N/A	$0
	Libertarian	Patrick Pietruszko	368	0.75	−0.27	none listed
	Independent	Steve Soos	217	0.44	N/A	none listed
	People's Political Party	Dario Smagata-Bryan	133	0.27	N/A	none listed
Total valid votes			48,874	98.63
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			680	1.37
Turnout			49,554	56.13
Eligible voters			88,287
	New Democratic notional hold		Swing		–7.26
Source: Elections Ontario[24]

2014 general election redistributed results[25]
Party		Vote	%
	New Democratic	20,334	47.88
	Progressive Conservative	11,313	26.64
	Liberal	8,674	20.42
	Green	1,713	4.03
	Libertarian	435	1.02

Welland, 2007–2018

2014 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Cindy Forster	21,326	46.79	+2.06
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Campion	12,933	28.37	−3.71
	Liberal	Benoit Mercier	9,060	19.88	−0.01
	Green	Donna Cridland	1,803	3.96	+1.81
	Libertarian	Andrea J. Murik	460	1.01	−0.16
Total valid votes			45,582	100.0
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+2.88
Source: Elections Ontario[26]

2011 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Cindy Forster	19,527	44.66	−9.28
	Progressive Conservative	Domenic Ursini	14,048	32.13	+13.25
	Liberal	Benoit Mercier	8,638	19.76	−3.15
	Green	Donna Cridland	1,005	2.30	−1.94
	Libertarian	Donna-Lynne Hamilton	505	1.15
Total valid votes			43,723	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			248	0.56
Turnout			43,971	51.64
Eligible voters			85,141
	New Democratic hold		Swing		−11.27
Source: Elections Ontario[27]

2007 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Peter Kormos	24,910	53.94
	Liberal	John Mastroianni	10,580	22.91
	Progressive Conservative	Ron Bodner	8,722	18.88
	Green	Mark Grenier	1,973	4.27
Total valid votes			46,185	100.0
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			347	0.75
Turnout			46,532	55.29
Eligible voters			84,161
Source: Elections Ontario[28][29]

Niagara Centre, 1999–2007

2003 Ontario general election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Peter Kormos	23,289	49.64	+5.21
	Liberal	Henry D'Angela	12,526	26.7	+7.31
	Progressive Conservative	Ann D. Gronski	10,336	22.03	−12.97
	Green	Jordan McArthur	768	1.64
Source: Elections Ontario[30]

1999 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Peter Kormos	21,856	44.43
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Sheehan	17,217	35
	Liberal	Maurice Charbonneau	9,539	19.39
	Natural Law	Margaret Larrass	382	0.78
	Independent	Lank Makuloluwa	198	0.4
Source: Elections Ontario[30]

Welland (1867–1977)

v t e Ontario provincial by-election, July 1875 Previous election voided
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Currie	1,747	52.51	−47.49
	Conservative	W. Buchnar	1,580	47.49
Total valid votes			3,327
	Liberal hold		Swing		−47.49
Source: History of the Electoral Districts, Legislatures and Ministries of the Province of Ontario[31]: 387

v t e 1875 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Currie	1,719	51.16	−48.84
	Conservative	W. Buchner	1,641	48.84
Total valid votes			3,360	69.48	+8.40
Eligible voters			4,836
Election voided
Source: Elections Ontario[32]

v t e 1871 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Currie	1,182	53.12	−1.10
	Liberal	William Beatty	1,043	46.88	−7.34
Turnout			2,225	61.08	−7.44
Eligible voters			3,643
	Liberal hold		Swing		+3.12
Source: Elections Ontario[33]

v t e 1867 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	William Beatty	1,298	54.22
	Conservative	E.A. Pew	1,096	45.78
Total valid votes			2,394	68.52
Eligible voters			3,494
	Liberal pickup new district.
Source: Elections Ontario[34]

v t e 1879 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Daniel Near	1,966	50.97	+3.48
	Liberal	James Currie	1,891	49.03	−3.48
Total valid votes			3,857	66.49
Eligible voters			5,801
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing		+3.48
Source: Elections Ontario[35]

2007 electoral reform referendum

2007 Ontario electoral reform referendum
Side		Votes	%
	First Past the Post	26,925	60.1
	Mixed member proportional	17,859	39.9
	Total valid votes	44,784	100.0