Image Credit: Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio
February 09, 2023 - 6:00 PM
The Southern Interior is getting one more riding in the next federal election and that means every riding boundary and name is changing.
And they are going to be different than proposed by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission last May.
Those were taken to the public through a number of meetings that lasted into the summer.
READ MORE: Boundary commission proposing new Vernon riding for next federal election
Key among the changes from now and the earlier proposals are the City of Kamloops being split into two ridings, Vernon no longer being attached to Kelowna and the Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola riding being split into five different ridings and disappearing.
%%Image5%%
“The most challenging area for reconfiguration in the Southern Interior is the City of Kamloops and its large trading and service area,” the commission wrote in its latest report. “The Commission concluded that... the population of the city must be spread into two electoral districts, with each part joining an extended community of smaller populations.”
The Commission decided the dividing line should be 6 Avenue.
This shows the ridings in Kelowna.
Image Credit: Submitted/Elections Canada
To the west, called Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola, the riding will extend to Lytton and Lillooet, including Cache Creek and north past Clinton but not as far as 100 Mile House.
It includes communities north along Highway 5 almost to Valemount so takes in Sun Peaks and Clearwater.
The Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies riding will stretch all the way to the Alberta border, including Salmon Arm, Sicamous, Revelstoke and Golden.
It reaches south down Highway 97A to include Enderby but stops just shy of Armstrong.
“Transportation routes are vital to the formation of communities of interest, to appropriate access of Members of Parliament to their constituents, and to robust community participation of constituents in the working of Canadian democracy,” the Commission’s report says.
The Vernon riding will move from what is now North Okanagan Shuswap to Vernon-Monashee.
While it loses the Salmon Arm area it will now extend south to take in Lake Country and eastwards to Nakusp and the Slocan Valley, almost to Nelson.
Kelowna will now have its own riding by that name but it will not include all of Kelowna, only the part north of Mission Creek and east of Ethel Street and Casorso Road.
This shows the ridings in Kamloops
Image Credit: Submitted/Elections Canada
It stretches along Highway 33 to south of Beaverdell so includes Big White, which had wanted into the riding.
The rest of Kelowna and West Kelowna will now be in the newly named Okanagan West-South Kelowna riding that takes in a good chunk of the population that was in the old Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola riding.
It will include Peachland and Summerland.
Arguably the most spread out riding in the Thompson-Okanagan region stretches from near Hope in the west all the way to Rossland in the east.
It includes Penticton, the South Okanagan, Highway 33 to the south of Beaverdell and Grand Forks.
It will be called Similkameen-West Kootenay.
The revised proposal was tabled in the House of Commons yesterday, Feb. 8 and will now be reviewed by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
Changes will not become official until the fall and won’t be implemented until at least April 2024.
The next federal election has to be held by Oct. 25, 2025 but, given there is a minority government, an election could theoretically be called before the ridings are redistributed.
The changes add one more seat – the 43rd – to B.C. and increases the Thompson-Okanagan representation to six from five MPs.
Go here for more information about riding redistribution.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2023