Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke (provincial electoral district)

The riding consists of

• the entire County of Renfrew; and
• the part of the Territorial District of Nipissing lying south and east of and including the South Algonquin Township (formerly Airy) and the unincorporated geographical townships of Deacon, Lister, Anglin, Dickson, Preston (Voters residing in Nipissing District make up only 1.5% of voter roll)

The provincial electoral district by this name created in 1996 through the Ontario's adoption of the Fewer Politicians Act, which made the name and boundaries of provincial electoral districts identical to those of their federal counterparts.^[1] The district name was first introduced in federal Representation Order 1976 and reunited all voters residing in Renfrew country back into one electoral district when it was first contested in 1979. The boundaries of the Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke federal electoral district was last adjusted by Representation Order, 1987 and has essentially remained the same since (though it has been renamed Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke by Representation Order, 2023.)

In adopting the federal boundary in 1996, the newly created provincial district of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke was essentially the successor district of Renfrew North, one of the districts in continual existence since Canadian Confederation, taking in its entirety. In addition, it also received just shy of a third of the voters previously in Lanark–Renfrew, which had absorbed Arnprior and the town of Renfrew when the provincial district of Renfrew South was eliminated in 1987, plus a geographically vast but sparsely populated portion of the Nipissing District, consist of the South Algonquin Township and unincorporated areas around the Algonquin Provincial Park.

Renfrew county elected its own provincial representative for the first time in 1854 to the 5th Parliament of the Province of Canada. Upon Confederation, its representation increased to two seats in the Ontario legislature (along with two seats in the House of Commons.) The boundaries that divided Renfrew North and South provincial ridings, as defined in the British North America Act, 1867, remained essentially unchanged for the following century until 1975.

By the census of 1971, the north riding had a population almost 50% greater that the south riding. To rebalance representation, the area south of Pembroke such as Whitewater and Wilberforce were redistributed to Renfrew South prior to the 1975 election. The south riding did not survive for much longer however. When it was eliminated in 1987, Arnprior and the town of Renfrew (along with their surrounding areas) were assigned to Lanark–Renfrew, while its vast geography that was less populated was assumed by Renfrew North.

While on paper the provincial electoral district was first contested in the 1999 Ontario election, its political history can be easily traced as it is the sole successor of:

• The electoral division of Renfrew from 1854 to 1867
• Both the north and south ridings of Renfrew from Confederation to 1987
• Renfrew North from 1987 to its debut in the 1999 Ontario election.

Since the turn of the millennium, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke has earned the reputation as among the two or three most Conservative electoral districts in Ontario. In 2000, it returned one of only three non-Liberal MP in Ontario, and had reliably returned Cheryl Gallant, a controversial social conservative, as MP ever since. When veteran Liberal MPP Sean Conway, a former cabinet minister who represented the riding since his 20s, retried in the provincial election in 2003, local voters here rejected his protégée and opted for John Yakabuski, a son of a former Conservative representative who was in office when Conway was in cabinet, making this riding the only loss suffered by the Liberals in the election that put them back in government with a massive majority. Prior to that however, Conway held the provincial seat for over quarter of a century, while the Liberals' old on the federal north riding was unbroken from before the second world war.

The two electoral district of Renfrew county have been represented by some of the most powerful and influential cabinet ministers of their time.

•   Frank Latchford, a prominent player in the Liberal Party circles in Ottawa who have never ran for public office prior, he was brought into cabinet by newly minted Premier George Ross as Commissioner of Public Works in 1899, and parachuted into running in Renfrew South where the Liberal incumbent won the previous election by a massive 1,400 votes margin (out of 4,400). Latchford was elected, with a reduced margin and not without an acrimonious campaign over in which his outsider status was made much issue of^[2]. He served as Attorney General in the final year of the 34 year Liberal reign, before being defeated by his erstwhile by-election rival.
•   Thomas McGarry was the erstwhile rival Latchford defeated in the 1899 by-election. He got his revenge when the 34-year Liberal reign came to an end in 1905 and replaced Latchford as the member for South Renfrew. He won re-election in 1908, and was returned by acclamation in 1911 and 1914 and was appointed Treasurer of the Hearst ministry soon after. Like the predecessor he bested, McGarry also served till the bitter end of a regime and lost his own seat when the government was ousted.
•   Edward Arunah Dunlop, son of Arunah Dunlop who represented North Renfrew briefly before dying in office, was the Conservative member for North Renfrew over three different stints between 1903 and 1934, was a prominent member of the Toronto business community while he was not in public office. He was also twice acclaimed to the seat (in 1911 and 1929) and was made a minister without portfolio by Howard Ferguson before being promoted Treasurer a few months before Ferguson retired. Like the two mentioned above, he served under a new leader who failed to reviving the governing party's fortune. Unlike the other two however, he did not served until the government's defeat but died a few months earlier, on New Year's Day 1934.
•   Sean Conway, a grandson of Thomas Murray who represented Renfrew North over three stints as MPP followed by two stints as MP, was elected in 1975 to the provincial seat his grandfather first won more than a hundred years earlier, and held onto it for 24 years, before defeating an neighbouring member to become the inaugural member of this new electoral district. Conway was only twenty-four when he ended the Progressive Conservatives' three-decade grip of Renfrew North. Ten years later in 1985, he was one of the three Liberal negotiators who brokered the governing accord with the NDP that ended the Progressive Conservatives' four-decade grip of the provincial government, and was among the most powerful ministers in the Peterson ministry that followed.
•   John Yakabuski, a son of long time Renfrew South member Paul Yakabuski, succeeded his second cousin Conway as this riding's member, and after four terms in opposition, was brought into cabinet when the Conservative returned to power in 2018 under Doug Ford. Initially appointed transportation minister, he was dodged by allegations of conflict of interests and was shuffled within a few months, and was dropped from cabinet in 2021.