Liberals winners in new Toronto and Peel map
Federal riding redistribution strengthens Liberal hold on key region
After hacking my way through the jungles of nine provinces’ worth of federal riding redistributions, it’s finally time to take on the big one: Ontario. And we’ll start in Toronto and Peel Region, where the Liberals already hold all the seats.
The new map will make that even easier next time.
This is the latest analysis in my series on the federal riding redistribution. Here’s how far we’ve come to date:
FEDERAL RIDING REDISTRIBUTION SERIES
Every decade, independent commissions re-draw Canada’s electoral map to reflect the growing population of the country. The process has now completed and the last remaining steps are for parliament to adopt the new maps and for Elections Canada to get everything in place to use that map when the next election is called. Because of the extra work that is required, the new map will only be used if the election occurs after April 2024. If it happens before that date, the next election will be fought over the map as it currently exists.
Changing riding boundaries can have a real impact on electoral outcomes. In this series, I’m diving deep into the re-drawn map to see what those impacts might be (with the help of J.P. Kirby’s excellent Riding Builder tool). Paying subscribers of The Writ are taking that deep dive along with me, but before plunging in here’s the TL;DR of what you need to know:
Toronto and Peel Redistribution Briefing: Though Toronto is losing a seat, the Liberals make good on that loss with a new riding being added to Brampton. In addition, changes to a couple of ridings will make it even tougher for the New Democrats to break the Liberal grip on the old city of Toronto.
After Toronto and Peel Region, the last two instalments of the series will look at 1) northern, eastern and southwestern Ontario and 2) the rest of the Greater Toronto Area.