Out in Left-Centre Field

The third in an ongoing series; the first part is an overview, while the second part covers the Maritimes and the North.

Here’s the second of my regionally focused discussions on the CYA’s new 177 riding system. As always, I strongly suggest you follow along with an interactive map of the real 308 ridings in the House of Commons, which can be found here.

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Manitoba:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 14
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 7
Minimum single ridings: 0
Maximum combined ridings: 7
New ridings: 1 single, 5 double, 1 triple.

Manitoba, oddly enough, was found in the earlier calculations to have its ridings reduced exactly in half. As I intend to keep the existing rural/urban balance, the six rural and eight urban (Winnipeg) ridings should thus be combined down to three and four, respectively.

Starting with the rural ridings, Churchill covers more than half of Manitoba, so I left it on its own. Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette and Selkirk—Interlake made the next logical combination (“Swan River—Selkirk—Interlake”), while Brandon—Souris, Portage—Lisgar, and Provencher had to be combined together (“Brandon—Portage—Provencher”) as they were the three smallest rural ridings and none really fit with any out of Winnipeg.

As for the provincial capital, Winnipeg North made the best match for Kildonan—St. Paul (now “Winnipeg North”), while Winnipeg Centre and Winnipeg South Centre were a natural fit (as “Winnipeg Centre”). On the recommendation of Matt Schaubroeck, a long-time CYA member from Manitoba, Elmwood—Transcona was combined with Saint Boniface to form “Winnipeg East”. This left Winnipeg South and Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia in a slightly awkward but still manageable combination (“Winnipeg Southwest”).

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Saskatchewan:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 14
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 6
Minimum single ridings: 0
Maximum combined ridings: 6
New ridings: 4 double, 2 triple.

For some reason, Saskatchewan seems to consist entirely of large rural ridings, unlike the clear rural-urban split seen in Manitoba. Why that is, I don’t know; but I pity whoever has to represent Saskatchewan ridings, as the travel involved must be a pain.

To start, given how tied my hands were with how many combinations had to take place, I put Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River with Prince Albert (“Prince Albert—Desnethé”), in order to prevent more triple combinations later. In comparison to many other potential combinations, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, and Battlefords—Lloydminster made a relatively cohesive whole (“Saskatoon—Battlefords”). Saskatoon—Humboldt and Blackstrap then made the next logical combination (“Saskatoon East”).

But then how to split the ridings in Regina, the south, and the east? Combining Regina ridings in pairs would have filled two more spots, with three huge rural ridings then set to combine to make an awkwardly massive (and massively awkward) riding wrapping around Regina from the northeast to the southwest. I opted to make the combinations regardless of whether I thought the ridings were urban or rural, as the ridings were all sizable and thus likely to be mostly rural anyways.

First, Regina—Qu’Appelle and Yorkton—Melville appeared to be a natural pair (“Regina East—Yorkton”), followed by the combination of Wascana and Souris—Moose Mountain (“Wascana—Souris”). The final riding in Saskatchewan was formed by the combination of Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, Palliser, and Cypress Hills—Grasslands (“Regina West—Cypress Hills”). It might be large, but it forms a workable and not-too-overly-populous whole.

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Alberta:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 28
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 19
Minimum single ridings: 10
Maximum combined ridings: 9
New ridings: 10 single, 9 double.

Alberta was the first province where I was able to have a significant number of single ridings – there must be a higher-than-usual concentration of youth, for some reason. At the same time, and much like Manitoba, I’ve tried to keep the urban-rural balance mostly the same: eight ridings in Edmonton, eight in Calgary, and twelve elsewhere were reduced to five in Edmonton, five in Calgary, and nine elsewhere.

Starting with Edmonton, Edmonton—Spruce Grove was the largest riding and was left on its own. Edmonton—Leduc and Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont made the first really self-evident choice for a combination (“Edmonton South”). Edmonton—Sherwood Park was also pretty sizable, so I left it on its own. Out of the four remaining ridings, I estimated that Edmonton Centre would fit best with Edmonton—Strathcona (“Edmonton Centre”), leaving Edmonton—St. Albert to join Edmonton East (“Edmonton North”).

Moving on to Calgary, Calgary Southwest and Calgary Southeast made the first natural combination (“Calgary South”). I left Calgary East on its own because it was fairly large already, for an urban riding. Calgary Centre and Calgary Centre-North made another reasonable combination (“Calgary Centre”). Calgary—Nose Hill and Calgary Northeast seemed to be the next logical choice for a combination (“Calgary North”), leaving Calgary West on its own. Having one single riding in both the east and the west sides of Calgary also lent some geographical balance to the combined ridings.

Elsewhere in Alberta, I had to be careful not to create ridings which were too large in geographic size. Peace River and Fort McMurray—Athabaska were both huge already and so I left them on their own. Westlock—St. Paul and Vegreville—Wainwright made a good geographical combination (“Westlock—Vegreville”). Crowfoot and Medicine Hat were both already pretty sizable and were each left on their own. Lethbridge and Macleod combined (“Lethbridge—Macleod”) to be about the size of each of Crowfoot or Medicine Hat.

The last four were a problem going down to three: Red Deer was found to be fairly youth-heavy, so it was left on its own, while Yellowhead was left alone based on its geographic size. Wetaskiwin and Wild Rose were left to form the last, albeit somewhat weirdly shaped, combination (“Wetaskiwin—Wild Rose”).

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That concludes my look into the Prairies; stay tuned for the third regional “spotlight”, this time on British Columbia! (Québec and Ontario to follow …)