Chatham-Kent’s mayor is pleased with the newly-proposed federal riding boundaries in Ontario, however, he says there may be one downside.
The current plan for the province’s riding boundaries has the municipality of Chatham-Kent amalgamated into one riding that also includes Leamington and Pelee Island. The municipality is currently split into the two ridings of Chatham-Kent-Leamington and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex.
Public consultations were held last fall where concerns were voiced locally about the initial suggested changes to the boundaries, which proposed splitting Chatham-Kent into three separate ridings.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said it’s clear that those criticisms were heard.
“There have been several iterations of this and the really cool thing about this is that they heard us,” said Canniff. “There were a lot of voices coming out of Chatham-Kent saying you can’t split us into three [ridings], we want to be one.”
However, Canniff noted that the current proposal would see Chatham-Kent lose some of its representation in upper levels of government.
“We’ll potentially have one MP and one MPP in the area… It will simplify things,” he said. “The downside to that is we go from two voices to one.”
The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission’s report on the revised riding boundaries was tabled in the House of Commons on Friday, and will now be reviewed by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
The earliest the new boundary map could be approved is in April of 2024, before coming into effect on the subsequent dissolution of Parliament.