This southwestern Ontario riding is in an economic area that is highly industrialized, with the Big Three automakers operating nearby. Set on the south shore of the Detroit River, it includes the western half of Windsor — the area west of Langlois Avenue, south of Tecumseh Road East and west of Pillette Road.

The riding was created in 1966 from Essex West and part of Essex East. The 1996 redistribution kept all of the riding and added 12 per cent of Windsor-St.Clair.

Population: 122,219 (2006 census; an increase of 4.4% since 2001)

In 2008, New Democrat MP Brian Masse won a third term, defeating Conservative Lisa Lumley and taking more than 52 per cent of the vote. Masse took the 2006 election when he received 49 per cent of the vote and beat Liberal Werner Keller by 11,498 votes.

Masse held the seat in 2004 when he defeated Liberal Richard Pollock. Masse had also beaten Pollock in a 2002 byelection to win his first term in office.

Windsor West and the former riding of Essex West were held by Liberal Herb Gray from 1962 to 2002. On Jan. 14, 2002, about six months before Gray would have celebrated 40 years in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed him commissioner of the International Joint Commission.

Gray served as minister of revenue, minister of consumer and corporate affairs, minister of industry, trade and commerce, minister of regional economic expansion and president of the Treasury Board in the Trudeau era. In 1993, he was appointed government House leader and solicitor general. He became deputy prime minister in 1997.

Essex West voted Liberal from 1935 until PC Norman Spencer won in 1958. Gray won in 1962, 1963 and 1965 in Essex West and then from 1968 to 2000 in Windsor West.