Out in Left-Centre Field

The second in an ongoing series; the first portion, an overview, can be found here.

Here’s the first of my regionally focused discussions on the CYA’s new 177 riding system. Once again, I suggest you follow along with an interactive map of the real 308, which can be found here.

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Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 3
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 3
Minimum single ridings: 3
Maximum combined ridings: 0
New ridings: 3 single.

All three territories’ ridings were left the same, as it was decided that no ridings would cross jurisdictional boundaries. There was some talk of uniting two of them (potentially Yukon and Western Arctic) into a single riding, given the scarcity of youth in the North, but the sheer geographical size of the territories won out to keep them separate. I sincerely hope this works out and helps us gain more involvement from the young people of Canada’s north.

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Newfoundland and Labrador:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 7
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 3
Minimum single ridings: 0
Maximum combined ridings: 3
New ridings: 1 single, 2 triple.

N&L seemed straightforward at first glance, but it turned out that geographical concerns made it the most controversial province by far.

Labrador, in and of itself, is far larger than the entirety of Newfoundland. It’s simply massive, and its population is scattered. It may have far fewer youth than the island, but the difficulty in properly representing such a huge area compensates in a big way. So what to do? Should I try and combine Labrador with an island riding, or leave it on its own and split the six on the island into two?

The problem with combining Labrador with any island riding is that they are physically separate. With so much area already to represent, the member for Labrador would have to make a long journey just to visit the island. Furthermore, after putting together the two St. John’s ridings, the resulting combination of Avalon, Random—Burin—St. George’s, and Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor is still fairly huge and geographically awkward.

There was also the argument that N&L should have an extra riding to accommodate Labrador while still splitting the island into three. Still, this makes possible combinations on the island geographically awkward – and, furthermore, it’s unfair to the other provinces who don’t get extra representation.

So, in the end, I left Labrador on its own. The island ridings I then split into two groups of three ridings: St. John’s East, St. John’s South—Mount Pearl, and Avalon now form “St. John’s—Avalon”, while Random—Burin—St. George’s, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, and Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte (whew!) combine to form “Terra Nova”.

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Prince Edward Island:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 4
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 1
Minimum single ridings: 0
Maximum combined ridings: 1
New ridings: 1 quadruple.

This was, by far, the simplest province to do. Four ridings (Egmont, Malpeque, Charlottetown, and Cardigan) combine to form the only quadruple-combined riding in the country – naturally, renamed “Prince Edward Island”.

(On an interesting/random note, much of my mom’s side of my family comes from PEI. My great-aunt, Leone Bagnall, was briefly the interim leader of the PEI Progressive Conservatives back in 1986, after having been Minister of Education for the preceding four years. She’s also a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Prince Edward Island. Neat, eh?)

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Nova Scotia:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 11
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 5
Minimum single ridings: 0
Maximum combined ridings: 5
New ridings: 4 double, 1 triple.

Nova Scotia was far more straightforward than N&L. Starting with the obvious: Halifax with Halifax West (“Halifax”), and then Dartmouth—Cole Harbour with Sackville—Eastern Shore (“Dartmouth—Eastern Shore”). One of the few ideas I actually poached from the old discussions was Coady’s point that Cape Breton should be a single riding; to that end, I put Cape Breton—Canso with Sydney—Victoria to form “Cape Breton”. Three down.

West Nova and South Shore—St. Margaret’s made a natural combination, as did Central Nova with Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, but where to put Kings—Hants? It didn’t make sense to put it with the Halifax-area ridings, but I had no more space. In the end, I decided to put Kings—Hants with Central Nova and Casey-land as it made a more cohesive area (“Kings—Cumberland—Central Nova”) while West Nova and SS-SM (now “Southwest Shore”) already made a sprawling area to represent.

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New Brunswick:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 10
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 4
Minimum single ridings: 0
Maximum combined ridings: 4
New ridings: 2 double, 2 triple.

New Brunswick was a bit awkward, in spots. Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe and Beauséjour made a natural combination (“Moncton—Beauséjour”), as did Fundy Royal and New Brunswick Southwest, which I then combined with Saint John, which they surrounded (“Saint John—Fundy”).

What to do next, though? Five ridings had to go down to two. Acadie—Bathurst only bordered on Miramichi, so that combination was obvious; Fredericton would then have to combine with Tobique—Mactaquac, at the very least. So where does that leave Madawaska—Restigouche? It’s a weirdly arranged riding in the extreme northwest corner of NB. To combine it with either of the neighbouring pairs of ridings would form a sprawling combination – either way wasn’t pretty. In the end, I put it with Acadie—Bathurst and Miramichi (“Bathurst—Miramichi—Madawaska”), as it was fairly distant from probably the biggest youth concentration in the province, Fredericton, which was already on the opposite side of Tobique—Mactaquac (now “Fredericton—Tobique”).

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So that’s the first and smallest regional spotlight; stay tuned for the Prairies!