Federal Boundaries Commission Final Report for BC

The final report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for BC has tabled their report.

My first pass will be the populations.   I looked at the populations in the original proposal and it was generally reasonably even with only only seven proposed ridings more than 5% over the electoral quota of 104,763 and six smaller than 95% of the electoral quota.   The final report allows for much more variance in populations.  12 have 5% more population than the quota and 10 have 5% less population than the quota.

In the original proposal the largest population was 114,676, now it is 121,062.

All the underlined ridings are not in Metro Vancouver or the Fraser Valley - once again the largest populations are in the parts of BC with the largest ridings by area and the ones with the most difficult travel schedule for the MPs.

Name of the new Riding                    2011 pop  +- from Quota

1. North Okanagan-Shuswap                    121,062   15.56%
2. Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo                 118,618   13.23%
3. Nanaimo-Ladysmith                         114,998    9.77%
4. Saanich-Juan de Fuca                      113,004    7.87%
5. West Van-Sushine Coast-Sea to Sky Country 112,875    7.74%
6. South Okanagan-West Kootenay              112,508    7.39%
7. Surrey Centre                             111,486    6.42%
8. Victoria                                  110,942    5.90%
9. Courtney-Alberni                          110,391    5.37%
10. Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam                  110,277    5.26%
11. Vancouver East                            110,097    5.09%
12. Kelowna-Lake Country                      110,051    5.05%
13. Fleetwood-Port Kells                      109,742    4.75%
14. North Vancouver                           109,639    4.65%
15. New Westminster-Burnaby                   108,652    3.71%
16. Cloverdale-Langley                        108,519    3.59%
17. Port Moody-Coquitlam                      108,326    3.40%
18. Cariboo-Prince George                     108,252    3.33%
19. Kootenay-Columbia                         107,589    2.70%
20. Prince George-Peace River                 107,382    2.50%
21. Surrey-Newton                             105,183    0.40%
22. Burnaby South                             105,037    0.26%
23. Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola       104,398   -0.35%
24. Saanich-Gulf Islands                      104,285   -0.46%
25. Vancouver Island North-Comox-Powell River 103,458   -1.25%
26. Vancouver Centre                          102,480   -2.18%
27. Vancouver Quadra                          102,416   -2.24%
28. Vancouver Kingsway                        102,003   -2.63%
29. Vancouver South                           100,966   -3.62%
30. Burnaby North-Seymour                     100,632   -3.94%
31. Delta                                     100,588   -3.99%
32. Vancouver Granville                        99,886   -4.66%
33. Cowichan-Malahat-Langford                  99,160   -5.35%
34. Abbotsford                                 96,819   -7.58%
35. Steveston-Richmond East                    96,610   -7.78%
36. Fort Langley-Aldergrove                    94,883   -9.43%
37. South Surrey-White Rock                    94,678   -9.63%
38. Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge                   94,111  -10.17%
39. Richmond West                              93,863  -10.40%         
40. Chilliwack-Hope                            92,734  -11.48%
41. Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon              90,871  -13.26%
42. Skeena-Bulkley Valley                      90,586  -13.53%

I do not think is is an overall improvement at all.

The Interior and North have 9 ridings for 982,046 people, they should have have 10.2 ridings if all we were considering was population.   This is not counting the population of the Fraser Canyon that has been grafted onto a riding that includes Mission and half of Abbotsford.   There is more than enough justification for a 10th riding.

Vancouver Island has 756,238 people in seven ridings, the Island should have 7.2 ridings, it is not dramatically over the limits as the Interior and North are but certainly there there could be some case made to attempt to come to some change that would allow for one more Island riding especially if one were to include the Sunshine Coast with Powell River.