Out in Left-Centre Field

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

Here’s the third and arguably shortest 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.

My apologies for leaving you all so long without an update. Schoolwork takes a mighty big toll on one's free time to write these kinds of things ... on to the information!

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British Columbia:
Ridings in the House of Commons: 36
Ridings under the 177 riding system: 22
Minimum single ridings: 8
Maximum combined ridings: 14
New ridings: 8 single, 14 double.

British Columbia, like Alberta, allowed for a significant number of single ridings. This helped a lot, as some of the ridings are already absolutely huge. Let’s break down how they were arranged ...

For starters, Skeena—Bulkley Valley and Prince George—Peace River each cover roughly one-quarter of the province. These were no-brainers to leave alone. Sure, I will want to leave some urban ridings uncombined later, but adding any more ground to cover to these ridings is probably tantamount to torture. I originally thought to combine Cariboo—Prince George with Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, but after an error in calculations (see the Overview, link above) was resolved and effectively gave me an extra riding to work with, I left each of them as single ridings as well.

Then I moved to the southeast part of the province. Kootenay—Columbia and British Columbia Southern Interior formed a pretty cohesive whole and only rivaled Cariboo—Prince George in size, so I combined them to form “Kootenay—Interior”. Kelowna—Lake Country and Okanagan—Shuswap were the next logical combination, becoming “Kelowna—Okanagan”. This left Okanagan—Coquihalla to join with Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, forming “Chilliwack—Okanagan”.

Moving to the Island ridings, I had originally thought that Vancouver Island North would make a good combination with one of its free neighbours, but on closer research of its awkward geography and on the recommendation of Sheldon Starrett, a CYPCer and one of the CYA’s members in B.C., I left it alone. Next, Nanaimo—Cowichan made a natural fit with Nanaimo—Alberni to form “Nanaimo—Cowichan—Alberni”. I next figured that Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca would make a better combination with Saanich—Gulf Islands (“Esquimalt—Saanich”) than with Victoria which, owing to its likely high population of youth, I left on its own.

Moving to the Vancouver area, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country was already a pretty big riding, both in area and in name, and covered a range from suburban to rural settings, so I left it on its own, albeit as “West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast”. North Vancouver and Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam struck me as pretty similar ridings, so I combined them to form “Vancouver North—Port Moody”. Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission also was large and covered a variety of suburban and rural areas, so it too was left on its own. Langley and Abbotsford made the next logical combination, becoming “Abbotsford—Langley”. (I know, so imaginative, eh?)

Now came the fun dance in Vancouver proper. First, Fleetwood—Port Kells went with South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale (“Surrey South—Fleetwood”), followed by Surrey North and Newton—North Delta (“Newton—Surrey North”). Richmond and Delta—Richmond East followed an earlier theme of reuniting municipalities (“Richmond—Delta”). Then eight ridings in Vancouver had to go down to four: Vancouver Centre and Vancouver Quadra were first (“Vancouver Centre”), followed by Vancouver South and Vancouver Kingsway (“Vancouver South”), which was in turn followed by Vancouver East and Burnaby—Douglas (“Vancouver East—Burnaby”), and finally Burnaby—New Westminster with New Westminster—Coquitlam (“Burnaby—New Westminster—Coquitlam”).

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That concludes my look into B.C.; stay tuned for the fourth and penultimate regional spotlight on Québec, before Ontario concludes this series!