Adding 6 seats to BC

The federal electoral redistribution process is under way and this time around BC gains a total of six new seats.  The BC commission was announced on March 26th - I am completely missed this.   More disturbing is the timeline, the press release from March 26th set April 20th as the date by which time comments should be in on what an initial proposal could look like.

According to the 2011 Census, BC has 4,400,057 people which means with 42 ridings the average population per riding is 104,763.

Population by regions

• Metro Vancouver - 2,313,328
• Vancouver Island - 736,264 
• Okanagan - 392,330 
• Fraser Valley - 277,593
• Kamloops Cariboo - 194,878
• Prince George Peace - 157,539
• Kootenaies - 146,264
• North West - 99,187 - The for 4 north west RDs and the Stikine
• Sushine Coast etc - 82,683 - this means Powell River, Sunshine Coast and Squamish Lillooet RDs but not the Lillooet area

Easiest is Vancouver Island, it has six MPs now and have the population for seven.   I would propose one new riding north of the Malahat.

The North West is also easy, it is one riding and the boundaries do not need to change, Vanderhoof and area can remain in the Cariboo-Prince George riding

The problem now is the rest of the interior with a total population of 891,011 people.   At 8 MPs, this is a population of 111,377 each, at 9 MPs this is 99,001.  If we went with 9 in the interior, this would mean the 604 area code would get 25 MPs and an average population of 106,944 per riding which seems reasonable.

Having 9 interior ridings would be a boost of one a bit from now.

• Prince George - Peace - shifting 5,000 people to Cariboo Prince George
• Carbioo - Prince George - shifting 15,000 people to Kamloops South Cariboo
• Kamloops - South Cariboo - gaining 15,000 from Cariboo - Prince George and 4,000 people from the Lillooet area.  40,000 moved to Kamloops South Okanagan
• Okanagan Shuswap - 21,000 moved south to Kelowna Lake Country
• Kelowna - Lake Country - shifted northwards with 55,000 of current riding in the new Kelowna Westside
• Kelowna - Westside - New riding with 55,000 from current Kelowna Lake Country and 50,000 from Okanagan Coquihalla
• Kamloops - South Okanagan 64,000 from Okanagan Coquihalla and 40,000 
• Kootenay - Columbia - remains the same at 88,026
• BC Southern Interior - remains the same at 97,9532 people

This leaves 25 ridings for the 604 area code, an increase of four from now.   More on that later.