New electoral boundaries for southwest

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This article was published 07/09/2011 (5388 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Change is in the air as voters in southwest Win­­ni­peg prepare to head to the polls for the upcoming Oct. 4 provincial election.

The boundaries of all ridings in the region are set to change as a result of electoral redistribution. In some cases, the names of ridings will also change.

In 2008, the Electoral Divisions Boundaries Commission produced its final report, making changes to all but one of the province’s 57 electoral divisions.

Mary Skanderbeg, manager of operations for Elections Manitoba, said this was not an unexpected result, considering Elections Manitoba only looks at adjusting electoral boundaries every ten years.

“All of the changes are quite miniscule. In Winnipeg, none of the 31 seats see any significant changes,” she said, noting population is the driving factor in deciding new electoral boundaries.

 “We try to even out numbers, based on achieving 20,000 potential voters per electoral division,” Skanderbeg said, adding data from the 2006 census was used to redefine the boundaries.

Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor with the University of Winnipeg’s politics department and a pollster with Probe Research, said it’s hard to predict what impact boundary changes could have on election results.

He said candidates will likely study the new boundaries — as well as poll-by-poll voter breakdown from the last election.

“Candidates will be able to tell which are their Conservative or NDP strengths of area, and which ones to campaign in,” he explained.

Adams added new boundaries could provide a challenge for incumbents.

“If people are used to seeing the same MLA in their neighbourhood, the rezoning suddenly means they don’t have the same MLAs knocking on their door,” he said.

He cited the example of the NDP incumbent Kerri Irvin Ross, whose Fort Garry riding has been redrawn and renamed Fort Richmond.

“She will be a fairly new name to a many of the voters when she knocks on the door, even though she’s been in government for a while now.

“It could reduce the incumbency (advantage),” he said.

Beyond the name change of Fort Garry to Fort Richmond, the riding now extends along the Red River to the Perimeter Highway in the south — taking a large chunk out of the St. Norbert riding.

The Lord Roberts riding will be combined with large pockets of the former Fort Garry riding and will see its name changed to Fort Garry- Riverview. The boundaries of Fort Garry-Riverview are the Red River to the east, Crescent Drive and Bishop Grandin Boulevard to the south, Waverley Street to the west, and Taylor Avenue and Carter Avenue to the north.

To deal with expected growth of the Waverley West area, the commission divided the community between the St. Norbert and Fort Whyte ridings, with Cadboro Road chosen as the boundary.

The riding of Fort Rouge, which used to include large portions of the city north of the Assiniboine River, has been redrawn so the river is its northern boundary.

The western boundaries of Fort Rouge was moved slightly from Stafford Street to Guelph and Wilton streets, and south from Corydon Avenue to Carter Avenue and the Fort Rouge Rail Yards.

River Heights and Tuxedo have also seen minor east and west boundary shifts.

For more detailed information of riding boundaries, visit www.electionsmanitoba.ca.

— With files from Rob Brown

arielle.godbout@canstarnews.com