Canada Federal Representation 2024

[DC Al Fine]

I'm trying to imagine the pushback you'd get here if a district crossed Halifax Harbour. Crossing the bridge for a district is a huge no-no here.

[DL]

I'm trying to imagine the pushback you'd get here if a district crossed Halifax Harbour. Crossing the bridge for a district is a huge no-no here.

There is a big difference though - Halifax and Dartmouth have been separate cities for most of their history and have always each been their own federal riding.

Saskatoon was once all one riding and it was on both sides of the river. Someone from Saskatoon can correct me but I don't think people there have a strong regional identity based on whether they live on the east or west side of the river - the cleavage is more downtown vs suburbs.

Regina ridings have crossed Wascana Creek before and and we all know in BC you have a riding that is partly North vancouver and partly Burnaby and now a proposed seats that crosses the Fraser river. I can remember when Calgary was just three ridings and Calgary Centre was on both sides of the Bow river too

[Hatman 🍁]

For COI reasons, this Saskatoon Centre makes more sense than using the river as a boundary. I mean, crossing a narrowish river isn't that big of a deal anyway. Ottawa-Vanier crosses the Rideau for example.

[Krago]

https://twitter.com/tjprovincial/status/1522916683341602816?s=21&t=ZqUwoB7zA...

What passes for front page news in New Brunswick.

[Hatman 🍁]

Well done! Too bad it's pay walled. You'd think the NB native himself who designed ridingbuilder would get some love?

[Krago]

I mentioned his name twice during the interview and sent the reporter links to election-atlas.ca and RidingBuilder.

It might be a Saint John vs Fredericton thang.

[Krago]

I have created an alternative set of ridings for British Columbia that may solve the 'Powell River' problem.

https://bit.ly/Canada343


I've moved the qathet/Powell River area from an interior seat to an Island seat.  For the three northern Island ridings, I would follow the exact same boundaries proposed by the Commission, though with slightly different names and populations:

• North Island--qathet -- 125,821
• Courtenay--Alberni--Parksville -- 122,772
• Nanaimo--Ladysmith -- 122,857

The 'slightly different populations' could be due to me using dissemination blocks and the Commission using dissemination areas.  I will have to check it out.


To compensate for losing qathet/Powell River, the new interior seat would extend north to include 100 Mile House, currently in Kamloops.  The three northern ridings would retain their current boundaries unchanged.

• Skeena--Bulkley Valley -- 89,689
• Prince George--Peace River--Northern Rockies -- 108,998
• Cariboo--Prince George -- 111,226
• Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country -- 107,952

All my proposed BC ridings would be within +-10% of the provincial average with the exception of Skeena, which would remain just within the -25% limit.

Please let me know if these alternative boundaries should replace the ones I published last week.

[emmettmark]

I have created an alternative set of ridings for British Columbia that may solve the 'Powell River' problem.

https://bit.ly/Canada343


I've moved the qathet/Powell River area from an interior seat to an Island seat.  For the three northern Island ridings, I would follow the exact same boundaries proposed by the Commission, though with slightly different names and populations:

• North Island--qathet -- 125,821
• Courtenay--Alberni--Parksville -- 122,772
• Nanaimo--Ladysmith -- 122,857

The 'slightly different populations' could be due to me using dissemination blocks and the Commission using dissemination areas.  I will have to check it out.


To compensate for losing qathet/Powell River, the new interior seat would extend north to include 100 Mile House, currently in Kamloops.  The three northern ridings would retain their current boundaries unchanged.

• Skeena--Bulkley Valley -- 89,689
• Prince George--Peace River--Northern Rockies -- 108,998
• Cariboo--Prince George -- 111,226
• Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country -- 107,952

All my proposed BC ridings would be within +-10% of the provincial average with the exception of Skeena, which would remain just within the -25% limit.

Please let me know if these alternative boundaries should replace the ones I published last week.

Wow - he has done it again - I am impressed and would love to be taught your skills of geographical mapping sorcery! I think this map is great and the best one I've seen yet, with the way you've moved Powell River to an island seat. If only we had 44 seats in BC .. sigh.

[emmettmark]

[/quote]

Wow - he has done it again - I am impressed and would love to be taught your skills of geographical mapping sorcery! I think this map is great and the best one I've seen yet, with the way you've moved Powell River to an island seat. If only we had 44 seats in BC .. sigh.
[/quote]

For clarity sake ---  the new riding (#43) you are proposing is called Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country ?

[Krago]

For clarity sake ---  the new riding (#43) you are proposing is called Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country ?

Yes.  I am open to suggestions for a better and shorter name.  (Sea-to-Sky-to-Canyon-to-Coquihalla?)

If I'm so smart, why did it take me so long to come up with something so obvious?

[emmettmark]

For clarity sake ---  the new riding (#43) you are proposing is called Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country ?

Yes.  I am open to suggestions for a better and shorter name.  (Sea-to-Sky-to-Canyon-to-Coquihalla?)

If I'm so smart, why did it take me so long to come up with something so obvious?

The best I can come up with, is Corridor - Canyon - Coquihalla ?

[MaxQue]

The BC Commission should learn something from the Saskatchewan commission. The borders around Regina and Saskatoon look odd, but they follow municipal boundaries, which don't seem to matter in BC.

[emmettmark]

The BC Commission should learn something from the Saskatchewan commission. The borders around Regina and Saskatoon look odd, but they follow municipal boundaries, which don't seem to matter in BC.

That's for sure hahaha

Every municipality in greater Vancouver is going to be upset over these maps

[Hatman 🍁]

For clarity sake ---  the new riding (#43) you are proposing is called Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country ?

Yes.  I am open to suggestions for a better and shorter name.  (Sea-to-Sky-to-Canyon-to-Coquihalla?)

If I'm so smart, why did it take me so long to come up with something so obvious?

Perhaps you were hesitant to Squamish, 100 Mile House and Princeton in the same riding. I don't mind personally, but I can see that being a difficult sell.

My bigger beef with your map is Kelowna (I don't like the idea of crossing Lake Okanagan, just like I don't like crossing the Burrard Inlet) and that Surrey--Cloverdale--Fraser Heights wrap around riding.

[Krago]

The best point in favour of the new sprawling interior riding is that it improves representation in all the areas it touches.

I'm not a big fan of the Cloverdale--Fraser Heights seat, but a Fleetwood North and Fleetwood South alternative would be worse.

Kelowna is too big for one riding.  Having the second seat include West Kelowna rather than Vernon would seem a positive thing to me.

That being said, what do you think of this?

[MaxQue]

Saskatchewan's proposal is out... and all I can say is whoa, whoa, whoa! The NDP will be pleased; if they can't win Saskatoon Centre, they can't win anything. Also, Churchill River is at -43.72%(!!!). I didn't think any Commission would go down to that point, least of all a Prairie one!

https://redecoupage-redistribution-2022.ca/com/sk/prop/othaut/int_e.aspx

That Saskatoon Centre riding will easily go NDP. Weird how Saskatoon gets an urban central district, but Regina doesn't.

Will be curious to see the transposed numbers in the Churchill River riding. As long as it still contains Meadow Lake, it will be tough for the NDP to win it, though.

Now the NDP just has to fight tooth and nail to get people who support the creation of Saskatoon Centre to speak out at the hearings that will take place. You have to think the Tories will throw everything but the kitchen sink at preventing that seat from being created.

I guess Saskatoon has a population large enough to be entitled to about 3.5 seats - so it gets a city centre seats, two suburban seats and a seat that is half suburban and half rural. Regina is entitled to 2.5 seats so it gets two purely urban seats and one that is half urban and half rural (like before). I guess Saskatoon has been growing much faster than Regina over the last ten years.

The report says +20% growth in Saskatoon and +17% in Regina, but Saskatoon was already bigger (now Saskatoon 266k, Regina 226k)

[Hatman 🍁]

The best point in favour of the new sprawling interior riding is that it improves representation in all the areas it touches.

I'm not a big fan of the Cloverdale--Fraser Heights seat, but a Fleetwood North and Fleetwood South alternative would be worse.

Kelowna is too big for one riding.  Having the second seat include West Kelowna rather than Vernon would seem a positive thing to me.

That being said, what do you think of this?

I like it!

[Krago]

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Also, a minor fix in downtown Coquitlam.



Why does QGIS make moving labels so friggin' difficult?

[EastAnglianLefty]

I reckon there's a much simpler solution to that Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country riding. I'm not going to map it out, because it's not terribly revelatory, but here's a brief description:

• Assign 26 seats to the general Vancouver area - 2 for N Vancouver/W Vancouver/Sunshine Coast; 6 to Vancouver; 5 to the Burnaby/New Westminster/Coquitlam area; 2 to Richmond; 1 to Delta; 5 to Surrey; and 5 to everything from Langley City to Hope and the Fraser Valley. Plenty of ways of doing all that
• Assign 5 seats to the Kootenay/Okanagan region, as at present
• Assign 2 seats to Peace River/Cariboo/Prince George, as at present
• Combine the Squamish-Lilloet and Thompson-Nicola districts with Kamloops and the bits of Columbia-Shuswap not currently in East Kootenay. That's exactly the right size for two districts - easiest solution looks to be to make one out of Kamloops and and the areas north of the Thompson River, though other arrangements are possible. It's a bit awkward, but much less so than stretching a riding from Squamish to Princeton.
• Advance Skeena-Bulkley Valley a bit further south to take in the Central Coast
• That gives the current North Island-Powell River the leeway to take the bits of Courtenay north of the river. There's a bit of urban separation between the two halves of Courtenay and the northern half shades into Comox, so it doesn't look like the worst thing in the world
• The remaining 6 ridings on Vancouver Island then shuffle along with fairly minor changes to ensure they're all within 10%

[Krago]

I reckon there's a much simpler solution to that Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country riding. I'm not going to map it out, because it's not terribly revelatory, but here's a brief description:

• Assign 26 seats to the general Vancouver area - 2 for N Vancouver/W Vancouver/Sunshine Coast; 6 to Vancouver; 5 to the Burnaby/New Westminster/Coquitlam area; 2 to Richmond; 1 to Delta; 5 to Surrey; and 5 to everything from Langley City to Hope and the Fraser Valley. Plenty of ways of doing all that
• Assign 5 seats to the Kootenay/Okanagan region, as at present
• Assign 2 seats to Peace River/Cariboo/Prince George, as at present
• Combine the Squamish-Lilloet and Thompson-Nicola districts with Kamloops and the bits of Columbia-Shuswap not currently in East Kootenay. That's exactly the right size for two districts - easiest solution looks to be to make one out of Kamloops and and the areas north of the Thompson River, though other arrangements are possible. It's a bit awkward, but much less so than stretching a riding from Squamish to Princeton.
• Advance Skeena-Bulkley Valley a bit further south to take in the Central Coast
• That gives the current North Island-Powell River the leeway to take the bits of Courtenay north of the river. There's a bit of urban separation between the two halves of Courtenay and the northern half shades into Comox, so it doesn't look like the worst thing in the world
• The remaining 6 ridings on Vancouver Island then shuffle along with fairly minor changes to ensure they're all within 10%

The proposed Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country is comprised of parts of five regional districts:

• Cariboo -- 13,898
• Fraser Valley -- 12,768
• Okanagan-Similkameen -- 10,540
• Squamish-Lillooet -- 50,496
• Thompson-Nicola -- 20,250

My understanding is that you want to:
move Cariboo to the Prince George ridings,
move Fraser Valley to the Mission/Abbotsford ridings,
move Okanagan--Similkameen to the Okanagan/Kootenay ridings,

and replace them with Columbia-Shuswap [40,772] and Thompson-Nicola [3,726] from North Okanagan--Shuswap.  Is this correct?

Or would you split Kamloops and join the SW/Central part of the city [40,252] to the Squamish--Lillooet riding along Hwys 1 and 5?

[EastAnglianLefty]

I reckon there's a much simpler solution to that Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country riding. I'm not going to map it out, because it's not terribly revelatory, but here's a brief description:

• Assign 26 seats to the general Vancouver area - 2 for N Vancouver/W Vancouver/Sunshine Coast; 6 to Vancouver; 5 to the Burnaby/New Westminster/Coquitlam area; 2 to Richmond; 1 to Delta; 5 to Surrey; and 5 to everything from Langley City to Hope and the Fraser Valley. Plenty of ways of doing all that
• Assign 5 seats to the Kootenay/Okanagan region, as at present
• Assign 2 seats to Peace River/Cariboo/Prince George, as at present
• Combine the Squamish-Lilloet and Thompson-Nicola districts with Kamloops and the bits of Columbia-Shuswap not currently in East Kootenay. That's exactly the right size for two districts - easiest solution looks to be to make one out of Kamloops and and the areas north of the Thompson River, though other arrangements are possible. It's a bit awkward, but much less so than stretching a riding from Squamish to Princeton.
• Advance Skeena-Bulkley Valley a bit further south to take in the Central Coast
• That gives the current North Island-Powell River the leeway to take the bits of Courtenay north of the river. There's a bit of urban separation between the two halves of Courtenay and the northern half shades into Comox, so it doesn't look like the worst thing in the world
• The remaining 6 ridings on Vancouver Island then shuffle along with fairly minor changes to ensure they're all within 10%

The proposed Fraser Canyon--Coquihalla--Sea-to-Sky Country is comprised of parts of five regional districts:

• Cariboo -- 13,898
• Fraser Valley -- 12,768
• Okanagan-Similkameen -- 10,540
• Squamish-Lillooet -- 50,496
• Thompson-Nicola -- 20,250

My understanding is that you want to:
move Cariboo to the Prince George ridings,
move Fraser Valley to the Mission/Abbotsford ridings,
move Okanagan--Similkameen to the Okanagan/Kootenay ridings,

and replace them with Columbia-Shuswap [40,772] and Thompson-Nicola [3,726] from North Okanagan--Shuswap.  Is this correct?

Yes. One riding would be made up of the following:

• The entirety of the Squamish-Lillooet district
• The portions of Thompson-Nicola district south of Kamloops
• The Columbia-Shuswap district, except for Revelstoke, Golden, Columbia-Shuswap A and Columbia-Shuswap B, which continue to go with East Kootenay

The other riding would then comprise:

• The entirety of Kamloops
• The portions of Thompson-Nicola district north of Kamloops

[Krago]

That's an excellent alternative.

I'm not sure that Squamish to Sicamous would be an easier sell than Squamish to Princeton, but the BC Commissioners don't have many viable options.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Looking at the numbers, it's just about possible to two ridings out of Squamish-Lillooet, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Bowen Island. They're both near the upper limit, but it's doable. I leave it to somebody local to say whether you can do that whilst respecting community identities in North Vancouver.

The Sunshine Coast and Powell River and then go with either Campbell River, Mount Waddington and Strathcona (for a neat-looking option which unfortunately lacks a ferry link) or with Comox and Courtenay (which is more coherent but means the seat taking North Island has to skirt round Courtenay.

That then means you need to put Kamloops and Thompson-Nicola district with Cariboo, Prince George and Peace River for three ridings (looks simple enough) and squeeze five ridings out of Okanagan, Kootenay and Columbia-Shuswap (mathematically feasible, but rather tight so some of the ridings may be a bit awkward.)

It might be an easier sell to a Commission in terms of avoiding an obvious leftovers riding, but at the cost of the remaining ridings all being slightly less coherent than would otherwise be the case.

[Krago]

Question for Calgarians: Which is the better option?

Option 1



Option 2



Option 3



Option 4



And the inevitable Option 5




Suggestions for better riding names are always welcome.

[Krago]

After the overwhelming response, here is the winner: