In their 2018 interim report, the Manitoba Electoral Divisions Boundaries Commission revealed they are tinkering with all of the province’s 57 electoral ridings, which includes some significant changes in Northern Manitoba.
Rather than keeping voters out of this decision making process entirely, the commission is hosting a series of hearings throughout the month, and are making a stop in Thompson on Sept. 11.
According to member Richard Chartier, who also serves as the chief justice of Manitoba, these hearings are designed to give locals a direct line to the commission to voice their opinions on these proposed changes.
“If the people have suggestions as to how this could be improved, we’re all ears,” said Chartier. “These maps are not etched in stone, but we have to start with a proposal.”
Even though the commission is a non-partisan group, it is making a number of proposals that could drastically change the outcome of the 2020 provincial election for several northern communities.
For example, if the province officially adopted these changes, the populations of Gillam and Nelson House will be added to the Thompson riding, which could make that specific race much closer. After all, current Conservative MLA Kelly Bindle only beat out incumbent NDP candidate Steve Ashton by just over 200 votes back in 2016.
However, Chartier revealed that the commission’s proposed changes aren’t made with any political ends in mind. Instead, these new electoral boundaries were divvied up based on the significant population shift that the province underwent throughout the last decade.
“Every 10 years this is done because the census comes out,“ he said, referencing the province’s new cumulative population of 1,278,365. “We took that number given to us by Census Canada, divided it by 57, which is the number of ridings that exist in Manitoba, and we then came up with that magic figure of 22,427.”
The commission’s boundary proposals are also confined by the parameters of the province’s Electoral Divisions Act, which requires the population of every riding north of the 53rd parallel to come within a 25 per cent variance this “magic figure.”
“What that effectively means is that for the north we can go as low as 16,827 people or we could go as high as 28,034 people in each one of the ridings,” said Chartier.
In addition to grouping Thompson, Gillam and Nelson House together, the commission also wants to slice up and combine Flin Flon and The Pas into a single riding, while also making room for a brand new electoral district named “Kameesak” that includes portions of The Pas and Swan River.
However, Chartier mentioned that anybody who strongly objects to these proposals should let their voices be heard sooner rather than later, since the commission has to table their report before Dec. 31, 2018.
“Once we table the report it becomes law,” he said. “It becomes the boundaries for the next election, which will be in 2020, unless of course there’s a snap election or something else.”
Anyone interested in attending the commission’s Thompson hearing should drop by the local Best Western Hotel at 5 p.m. on Sept. 11.
Even though drop-in presenters may be allowed to on a first-come, first-served basis, individuals and groups who want to make presentations to the commission should register in advance by phone or on their official website.
Otherwise, the commission will be touring the rest of the province until Sept. 20, with stops in both Flin Flon and The Pas on Sept. 12.
