Toronto will have one less Member of Parliament (MP) in the upcoming election, according to the final report of a federal commission..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, hundreds of people who signed petitions disagreed with the redistricting plans..“The Commission received 545 oral and written submissions concerning the City of Toronto’s proposed boundaries,” according to the final Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Ontario. The report was tabled with Parliament in summer recess..The report stated that Toronto has more seats in Parliament than it should, with a total of 25. .The federal commission decided to remove the riding held by Liberal MP Jean Yip in Scarborough-Agincourt. .During the 2021 federal campaign, the Liberal Party won all 25 ridings in Toronto with 51% of the popular vote, which was the largest majority in any major city for the party..“Due to uneven population growth in the province of Ontario and specifically within the Greater Toronto Area, the commission maintains 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,” wrote the commission..“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,” it wrote. Maintaining 25 seats in Toronto would “unfairly impact other parts of Ontario.”.The House Affairs committee, comprised mostly of Liberal MPs, recently released a report on June 7. .In the report, they disagreed with the decision to remove a riding in Toronto and reduce the number of ridings in Northern Ontario from nine to eight. .The committee also criticized the MPs for not suggesting any alternative solutions to address these concerns..“Encouraging the Commission at this late stage to remove ridings from two other parts of the province without any guidance is inconsistent with the concept of public consultations that the Commission pursued,” according to the final report..MPs should “not offload completely to the commission the difficult work of taking away ridings from two other regions” for the sake of maintaining seats in Toronto and Northern Ontario, it said. .“Acceding to the request would have significant consequences to the rest of the province.”.Of the current nine ridings in Northern Ontario, six are held by Liberal MPs Patricia Hajdu (Thunder Bay-Superior North, ON), Viviane Lapointe (Sudbury, ON), Marcus Powlowski (Thunder Bay-Rainy River, ON), Anthony Rota (Nipissing-Timiskaming, ON), Marc Serré (Nickel Belt, ON) and Terry Sheehan (Sault Ste. Marie, ON)..One Northern Ontario riding is held by Conservative MP Eric Melillo (Kenora, ON) and two by New Democrats Carol Hughes (Algoma-Manitoulin, ON) and Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, ON)..“It’s about representation,” Angus testified at a May 8 hearing..“Is your opposition to cutting a seat in Northern Ontario about protecting your own riding?” asked New Democrat MP Rachel Blaney (North Island-Powell River, BC). .“I’m not here for me,” replied Angus.
