South Shore—St. Margarets

South Shore—St. Margarets (formerly South Shore—St. Margaret's and South Shore) is a federal electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1968. It covers the South Shore region of Nova Scotia.

It was created in 1966 mostly from Queens—Lunenburg and Shelburne—Yarmouth—Clare. In 2003, the district added portions of Halifax West.

The western portion of the riding is heavily Conservative and Gerald Keddy lost votes from this side of the riding in the 2006 election when he was only one of a handful of Conservative MP's to support same-sex marriage. The Region of Queens Municipality is leaning NDP as they won this part of the riding in 2008 by a slim margin. The eastern portion of the riding is slightly leaning Conservative.

Demographics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
2001	83,694	—
2006	82,855	−1.0%
2011	82,254	−0.7%

From the 2006 census ^[2]

Ethnic groups:

White: 97.1%
First Nations: 1.5%
Black: 0.6%

Languages:

English: 96.9%
French: 1.2%
German: 0.6%
Other: 1.1%

Religions:

Protestant: 71.5%
Catholic: 11.5%
Other Christian: 1.1%
No affiliation: 15.4%

Education:

No certificate, diploma or degree: 34.5%
High school certificate: 21.2%
Apprenticeship or trade certificate or diploma: 12.2%
Community college, CEGEP or other non-university certificate or diploma: 17.4%
University certificate or diploma: 14.7%

Median Age:

45.2

Median total income:

$20,580

Average total income:

$27,987

Median household income:

$44,108

Average household income:

$53,111

Median family income:

$52,772

Average family income:

$61,279

Unemployment:

10.3%

Geography

It consists of:

the counties of Shelburne, Queens and Lunenburg;

and

the western part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, i.e., the part lying west of a line drawn south from the intersection of the boundary between the regional municipality and the County of Hants with the western shoreline of Pockwock Lake along the shoreline to the western extremity of Ponhook Cove, then south in a straight line for approximately 2.7 km to the mouth of the Pockwock River at Wrights Lake, southeast in a straight line for approximately 3.8 km to the northern extremity of Stillwater Lake, south along that lake, southwest along Route 213 (Hammonds Plains Road) to Trunk 3, southeast in a straight line for approximately 18.6 km to the mouth of the Nine Mile River, southwest along Shad Bay (passing west of Cochrans Island) to the Atlantic Ocean.

History

As per the 2012 federal electoral redistribution, this riding will gain 11% of its new territory from Halifax West for the 42nd Canadian federal election.

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following Members of Parliament:

Parliament	Years		Party
South Shore Riding created from Queens—Lunenburg and Shelburne—Yarmouth—Clare
28th	1968–1972	Lloyd Crouse	Progressive Conservative
29th	1972–1974
30th	1974–1979
31st	1979–1980
32nd	1980–1984
33rd	1984–1988
34th	1988–1993	Peter McCreath
35th	1993–1997	Derek Wells	Liberal
36th	1997–2000	Gerald Keddy	Progressive Conservative
37th	2000–2004	Gerald Keddy	Progressive Conservative
South Shore—St. Margaret's
38th	2004–2006	Gerald Keddy	Conservative
39th	2006–2008
40th	2008–2011
41st	2011–2015
South Shore—St. Margarets
42nd	2015–Present	Bernadette Jordan	Liberal

Election results