The Comox Valley will be divided in half and Nanaimo united under final changes to federal election boundaries on Vancouver Island.
A three-person electoral commission tabled its final report into B.C. federal ridings in the House of Commons on Tuesday, changing where many Island residents will vote in the next federal election.
The commission rejected appeals from Vancouver Island North MP John Duncan and Nanaimo MP James Lunney not to divide Comox and Courtenay into separate ridings.
Comox will be lumped in with Powell River to form the new Vancouver Island North-Comox-Powell River riding, while Courtenay shifts into a redesigned Courtenay-Alberni electoral district.
“For population reasons, the two cities cannot be united in one electoral district and still kept whole,” reads the commission’s final report. “We consider that municipal boundaries should render the division intelligible to constituents.”
Two mainland MPs objected to Powell River’s inclusion in the Island riding, suggesting it was better suited to remain in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country.
But that mainland riding had too many people, and the short ferry ride between Comox and Powell River should make it easy for the Island MP to link to constituents, the commission said.
“I don’t pretend to say everyone up there was wildly enthused,” said commission chairman John Hall, a B.C. Court of Appeal judge.
“What partly drove it was West Vancouver had been allowed to get wildly over the [riding population] number. Powell River is part of that.”
Lunney had criticized the commission for uniting Nanaimo, which is currently split into two federal ridings, into a single Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding, including Lantzville.
Lunney wanted the city to remain divided, but the commission said communities should try to remain intact where possible.
“Everybody we heard from that was not happy said they want things to be the way they are,” Hall said. “That’s a good suggestion. The only problem was we had to somehow put in six [new] seats.”
Vancouver Island now has seven ridings, up from six, because 100,000 more people live on the Island compared to 10 years ago.
Other changes include pulling Langford and the Highlands into a Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding, as well as slight revisions to the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.
A reconfigured riding of Colwood, Sooke, Esquimalt, View Royal, Metchosin and part of Saanich was set to be called Saanich-Juan de Fuca.
Current MP Randall Garrison suggested including Esquimalt, and so the commission settled on the name of Saanich-Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.
Greater Vancouver gained five new seats, and the House of Commons grew by 30 seats to 338 ridings.
The changes come into effect for any election or byelection held more than a year from now.
The next scheduled federal election is in 2015.
