Most new ridings located in Toronto and GTA
Melissa Sundardas
News Editor
Due to Ontario’s population growth, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario proposed readjusting the boundaries of many electoral districts and adding 15 additional electoral ridings in Toronto and the GTA.
The new electoral districts are located in Brampton (2), Cambridge, Durham (2), Hamilton, Markham (2), Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Simcoe, Toronto (2), and York.
By law after each census, which occurs every 10 years, under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, the government has to look at each riding’s population in every province, and readjust the boundaries of the ridings accordingly. This is done to make sure that within each province the number of voters in each riding are approximately equal, says Robert MacDermid, a political science professor at York.
“It’s a fairness thing in some ways because population growth is lumpy in a way—the GTA grows a lot, Ottawa doesn’t grow a lot, Kingston loses some population, Timmins gets smaller—all of these things are occurring and every 10 years you want to restore that equal number of voters in each riding so that the power of your vote is about the same,” says MacDermid.
Given that just before the redistribution there was 150,000 to 170,000 people in Vaughan with only one MP and other ridings in Ontario with about 50,000 people with one MP, you could make the argument that if you live in Vaughan, your vote is worth a lot less and in another riding its worth much more because there’s less people, says MacDermid.
With this proposal, the commission is trying to reach an average of about 106,000 people in each riding.
Ontario’s population grew from 11.41 million in 2001 to 12.85 million in 2011, according to Statistics Canada’s census reports.
Growing population usually means more seats in the House of Commons, and there are constitutional protections for seats in the smaller provinces, explains Robert Drummond, professor emeritus in York’s department of political science.
Ontario’s number of seats in the House of Commons would rise from 106 to 121.
“The aim is, so far as possible, to have ridings of roughly similar size, but the constitutional and geographic factors make it necessary to have sometimes widely varying sizes,” says Drummond.
MacDermid says the process of creating new boundaries and electoral ridings has successfully been non-partisan. The commission has guidelines and tries not to draw a boundary in the middle of a town or city that would separate certain cultural groups, for example, or communities with similar interests.
With the redistribution of electoral boundaries and new proposed riding regions, one political party could benefit.
“In the short run, the Conservatives will probably gain a little, though in the longer term party competition in the growing areas may change,” says Drummond.
New boundary changes and ridings will take place for the 2015 federal elections, and MacDermid suggests that students check the Redistribution of Federal Electoral Districts 2012 map to see if their riding has changed in any specific way.
“If you’re in a Liberal riding and now because of the re-drawing you’re in a Conservative riding it can make a difference if you’re active in politics,” MacDermid says.
