With a provincial election less than a year away, B.C. politics have understandably been dominating the news agenda.
But a large federal issue is looming and Tri-City residents, especially those living in Port Coquitlam, will want to pay attention. The issue? The planned re-drawing of federal riding boundaries.
Preliminary maps have been distributed and there will be changes before the boundaries are finalized. But if voters are concerned about the way the new ridings will take shape, now is the time to raise the alarm.
For the most part, the riding changes are good news for Tri-Cities federal voters. We would be sending three, not two, MPs to Ottawa and efforts have been made to keep the communities of Coquitlam and Port Moody intact.
Under the proposed redistribution, the Tri-Cities would be cut in half, using the Barnet and Lougheed highways as the divider: Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam (population 103,632) would be to the north and Port Moody-Coquitlam (population 97,621) to the south. The rejig would mean the existing ridings of Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam and New Westminster-Coquitlam would disappear by the next general election, which will be held Oct. 19, 2015.
These ridings make sense because they keep a sense of continuity and current MPs James Moore and Fin Donnelly, recognizing that more tweaks are likely to come, seem somewhat satisfied with the new boundaries.
But if the aim is to keep communities intact, Port Coquitlam loses out, according to this proposal, and would be split up into three ridings. One would see south Port Coquitlam joined to a Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge riding (population 96,956) and doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
It's hard to see what increasingly densifying PoCo neighbourhoods would have in common with the rural and suburban communities of their neighbours across the Pitt River.
Still, these boundaries are not set in stone and there is time to comment during a public meeting in Coquitlam on Sept. 27 (to make a presentation, email bc-cb@rfed-rcf.ca).
Don't leave the decision to somebody else, take a look. For more information, visit federal-redistribution.ca.
