Concerns over riding boundaries were heard: Politicians

Officials from the Chatham-Kent area are mostly on board with a new plan to put the entire municipality within one electoral district.

If a final recommendation from the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario, all of Chatham-Kent, Leamington and Pelee Island will be part of the Chatham-Kent—Leamington riding.

Currently, part of Chatham-Kent is within the Lambton—Kent—Middlesex riding, giving the municipality two MPs. The commission’s original plan proposed Chatham-Kent be split further into three districts.

Chatham-Kent council passed a resolution in September asking staff members to attend a virtual public forum on the original plan and to oppose these changes.

Mayor Darrin Canniff said the new boundaries show these concerns were heard.

“I think it will help as far as confusion with voters,” he said. “There won’t be nearly as much confusion. All of Chatham-Kent will be voting for one member (in the House of Commons).”

The only downside, Canniff said, is it gives Chatham-Kent one fewer voice in Ottawa and, potentially, Toronto if the province uses the same districts.

“If you have two representatives, you have twice the opportunity to have a cabinet minister there, and certainly you want as many voices speaking for you as possible,” he said.

“It’s going to impact us that way. Moving forward, we have strong voices now and hopefully we continue with strong voices in the future.”

However, Canniff said he has no plans to speak against the new plan and council will “work with whatever system they come up with.”

MPs are allowed to raise concerns about the new riding boundaries if they have the support of 10 other MPs.

Dave Epp, the Conservative MP for Chatham-Kent—Leamington, said he will not object.

“When the initial report came out, obviously there were conversations among MPs and, more importantly, with our stakeholders with our municipalities,” he said. “The overwhelming message that we heard from our municipalities was to keep communities of interest together.”

Epp noted the three-member commission, in their initial plan, tried to keep each riding’s population as equal as possible and set a threshold of plus or minus 10 per cent of the average district’s population.

This resulted in Kingsville being split in half and Chatham-Kent being part of three ridings initially.

Epp said he had met with area MPs from all parties, including Marilyn Gladu, the Conservative member for Sarnia-Lambton; Chris Lewis, the Conservative member for Essex; Brian Masse, the NDP member for Windsor West; and Irek Kusmierczyk, the Liberal member for Windsor—Tecumseh.

“We basically put together a united message saying, ‘Keep communities of interest together,’” Epp said.

“I’ll express publicly that we’re actually glad that the commissioner has heard that message and not only around here. They also heard that across the province and that’s what I’m generally hearing is that they really went back and are allowing more variants in the ridings.”

The Chatham-Kent—Leamington riding would have 15.1 per cent more people than the quota set by the commission.

The Conservative MP said he would have continued to serve no matter how the boundaries ended up, but the Chatham-Kent—Leamington riding, as it is proposed now, addresses the concerns of Chatham-Kent and Kingsville.

The Procedures and House Affairs committee will consider the objections brought forward by MPs and will make recommendations back to the commissioners. The final changes will take effect by April 2024 at the earliest.