In previous presentations, it was mentioned that redistribution is like a ‘puzzle’ with falling ‘dominoes’, from one riding to another.

With Ontario getting one additional riding based on the Elections Canada Representation Formula, and the Electoral Quotient in Ontario, of 116,590, the placing of boundaries can be a difficult exercise.

The Lambton Federation of Agriculture would like to present their vision and suggested riding boundaries that would benefit municipalities (both upper and lower tier) by avoiding them being placed in multiple electoral districts, as much as possible.

Southwestern Ontario

With one additional riding being placed somewhere within Ontario, I went into RidingBuilder.ca and added the ‘additional riding’ on the western end of Ontario in the Windsor-Essex area (rather than South of London as was in the original Commission proposal), and experimented with how the ‘dominoes’ would fall in subsequent ridings.

Windsor & ‘Essex East’ – click to expand

All three Windsor-Essex area ridings are over the quotient (Windsor West = 130.1k, Windsor Tecumseh = 122.7k, and Essex = 134.6k), so rather than adding an additional ‘Urban’ riding, I decided to try adding an additional semi-rural riding in “Essex East”.

This allowed the existing Windsor West to be reduced to the Hwy 401 corridor and Cabana Road as boundaries. (it now has 115,329 Electors in my proposal)

This also allowed existing Windsor-Tecumseh to be reduced to the CP Rail corridor at the southern end and the Puce River on the East as boundaries (it now has 115,986 Electors in my proposal).

The new ‘Essex East’ is bounded by the Detroit River on the West and the Belle River and Arner Townline on the East, and would include the towns of Amherstburg, LaSalle, Harrow, and Essex itself (proposed as 117,171 Electors).

‘Essex West – Chatham-Kent’ – click to expand

‘Essex West — Chatham-Kent’ would then start from there and bound itself to the Thames River to the north and Dillon Road / Ad Shadd Road in Chatham-Kent to the East, and would include the communities of Belle River, Kingsville, Leamington, Pelee Island, and Tilbury and Wheatley areas. (86,844 Electors in my proposal).

‘Chatham-Kent’ would start from there and bound itself back to the Lambton County border to the North, and the Elgin County border to the East, and include the communities of Chatham, Wallaceburg, Dresden Bothwell, Highgate, Ridgetown and Blenheim (now 91,846 Electors).

– Alternatively, taking on Bkejwanong / Walpole Island would increase it to 93,465.

‘Chatham-Kent’ – click to expand

‘Sarnia-Lambton’ can be expanded to include the eastern Lambton County Municipalities and Bkejwanong / Walpole Island, except for Lambton Shores (now at 116,664 Electors in my proposal).

– Alternatively, Moving Bkejwanong / Walpole Island to Chatham-Kent would reduce it to 115,045.

Sarnia-Lambton – click to expand

‘Lambton-Middlesex’ would include Lambton Shores and the rest of Middlesex County not in the City of London, adding all of Thames Centre and parts of Middlesex County south of Southdale road in London over to Wellington Road South. (now at 115,056 Electors in my proposal). Lambton-Kent-Middlesex currently is 115.4k.

This reduces the area of the three London Ridings: London West is now 124,895 Electors (currently 139.3k), London North Centre is now 123,623 Electors (currently 138.2k), and London Fanshawe is now 123,930 Electors (currently 127k) in my proposal.

London & ‘Lambton-Middlesex’ – click to expand

Removing the whole of Thames Centre from Elgin-Middlesex-London and adding in some outlying London polls leaves it at 122,928 Electors in my proposal (it is currently at 126.4k)

These are the ridings for which I was able to get to, showing how a NEW riding in Essex East could “domino” itself across Southwest Ontario, leaving municipalities as complete as possible, while choosing ‘natural’ or ‘historical’ boundaries when that was not possible.

The mapping feature on Riding Builder.ca allowed me to export my permutations as a CSV file, and this allows people to import it and see the details not apparent on a printed map.

~Gary Martin~
Lambton Federation of Agriculture.
October 2022.

NOTE: All written comments will be posted on the website at https://redecoupage-redistribution-2022.ca/com/on/phrg/othaut/index_e.aspx with the person’s full name and date received (no personal information such as email or mailing address).

Lambton Federation of Agriculture Riding Redistribution Submission
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