Oak Ridges was a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2007.
It consisted of the towns of Richmond Hill and Whitchurch-Stouffville, and the part of the town of Markham (now a city) north of 16th Avenue.
Ahead of the 1999 Ontario provincial election, all provincial electoral districts (or "ridings" colloquially in English Canada), were recreated to match the boundaries of Ontario federal electoral districts as defined in the 1996 Representation Order. This led to a reduction of 27 seats at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, leading to many head-to-head survival contests between incumbent MPPs, some even between MPPs of the same party. York Region however was one of the two exception that gain additional seats, due to the explosive population growth in the 1980s. When the new provincial electoral map is compared to the previous one, Oak Ridges is one of only three newly carved out district.
While the Oak Ridges federal electoral district was created from parts of the federal electoral districts of MarkhamâÂÂWhitchurchâÂÂStouffville (created as Markham by the 1987 Representation Order) and York North (one of the original ridings created by the British North America Act, 1867), the news provincial electoral district consisted portions from three former provincial electoral districts:
The electoral district was only contested twice, electing Progressive Conservative Frank Klees both time. It was abolished in 2003 and redistributed to Oak RidgesâÂÂMarkham and Richmond Hill.