Federal ridings stick with status quo across southwestern Ontario

Following pushback by many mayors and municipalities in southwestern Ontario, most of the federal ridings in the region will be exactly the same the next time Ontarians go to the polls.

“We emphasized the importance of keeping our communities whole and our counties whole,” said Huron County Warden, Glen McNeil.

Last August, Elections Canada proposed some fairly drastic changes to some of the federal ridings in Ontario. In Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, Grey Highlands would have moved to Simcoe-Grey, while Brockton and South Bruce would have been added to MP Alex Ruff’s riding. Huron-Bruce would have entirely changed names to South Huron Shores, dropping Howick, and adding North Middlesex and Lambton Shores.

But, a sober second thought by Elections Canada and some loud objections against most of the changes has left Ontario’s federal ridings exactly where they started.

“Ultimately they decided both Ben Lobb’s riding [Huron-Bruce], and my riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound would keep the exact same boundaries. So, no foreseeable changes for the next 10 years,” said Ruff.

An updated federal ridings map for February 2023. (Source: Elections Canada)

Elections Canada completes riding reviews every 10 years to ensure a similar number of constituents per riding. The goal for the next election was 116,000 constituents per riding. The proposed changes would have gotten each riding closer to that number, but keeping them the same means they’re not far off that number either.

“It’s very important to keep our communities, our ridings, and our counties whole,” said McNeil.

Ruff added, “It’s not as much about geography as it is about the number of people, so that you have equal representation.”

The final federal ridings review report will be released this summer, following feedback from federal MPs. Ruff and McNeil don’t anticipate any more changes to southwestern Ontario’s current federal ridings.