In the next election, fewer MPs will be representing Toronto and northern Ontario, while there will be more MPs in the Okanagan region and suburban Alberta..According to a legal notice, significant historical changes brought about by the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act will come into effect on April 22, 2024..“One of our election readiness activities this year relates to electoral boundaries redistribution,” Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault earlier testified at the House Affairs committee. .Any election after April 22 “would take place under the new map,” said Perrault..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, redistribution aimed at roughly balancing seats to population growth will see 343 seats in the Commons, a record..Ridings are divvied up with 122 in Ontario, 78 in Québec, 43 in British Columbia, 37 in Alberta, 14 in Saskatchewan, 14 in Manitoba, 11 in Nova Scotia, 10 in New Brunswick, seven in Newfoundland and Labrador, four in Prince Edward Island and one each in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut..Toronto will have one less riding for federal elections, going from 25 to 24. Scarborough-Agincourt, where Liberal Jean Yip is the current MP, will be removed..In the last election, the Liberal Party won all 25 seats with 51% of the vote, the Liberals highest level of support in any major Canadian city..“It is necessary to move a district to other areas of the Greater Toronto Area that, while equally diverse, are growing much faster than the City of Toronto,” said the Final Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Ontario..“The population of the City of Toronto only grew by 6.9% from 2011 to 2021 compared to 11.7% for the remainder of the province,” wrote the report. .Maintaining 25 seats in Toronto would “unfairly impact other parts of Ontario.”.As part of significant revisions to all seats in the region, Northern Ontario will see a reduction in the number of ridings, going from nine to eight..Liberals in 2021 won most ridings in Northern Ontario, all but Kenora (Conservative MP Eric Melillo) and Timmins-James Bay (New Democrat MP Charlie Angus)..“We are in a very fragile time for democracy,” Angus testified on May 8 at the House Affairs committee. .“We must do our best to reassure citizens that their voice counts and that they are being heard.”.British Columbia gained one new seat, Vernon-Lake Country in the Okanagan. .Alberta gains three in Calgary McKnight, Airdrie-Chestermere and Spruce Grove-Leduc..Boundary changes in Québec cost one MP her riding, Bloc Québécois MP Kristina Michaud (Avignon-La Mitis-Matane-Matapédia). .“We are firmly opposed to this,” Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet earlier told reporters. .“It is unacceptable.”.Canada's first Parliament in 1867 had a total of 181 seats, with none of them located west of Lake Huron or east of Cape Breton. .The election process was staggered over six weeks and MPs were selected through a show of hands.
