‘Quite a bit of surprise here’: New provincial boundaries ripple through legislature halls

KAMLOOPS — The B.C. Electoral Boundaries Commission tabled its final report Monday (April 3). The city of Kamloops will still be split into two different ridings, however the river will no longer be the dividing line. The new map will also see Tobiano separated from Kamloops, joining with places like Ashcroft and Cache Creek in Cariboo-Chilcotin.

Kamloops Centre and Kamloops North Thompson will be the new provincial ridings in the city for the next B.C. election. The Kamloops Centre boundary would see MLA Todd Stone’s riding condense around the urban centre of the city on both the north and south shore of the Thompson River.

“There is actually quite a bit of surprise here in the legislature across all parties. Just the scope and scale of the changes that are reflected in this final report. When we look at the electoral boundary commission processes, the last two times this has been done over the past 20 years, there weren’t many substantive changes made in the final report,” said Stone.

Throughout the consultation process on the new boundary map, areas north of Kamloops such as Barriere and Clearwater advocated to be included with Kamloops and not moved to the Cariboo-Chilcotin.

“Super pleased with this announcement,” said Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell. “I realize there is still about a population imbalance here. We are at about 60,000 versus the Prince George-Valemount riding north of us at about 40,000. But (I’m) super happy to be included in the economic, the social, the healthcare region that we do business with in Clearwater, North Thompson, and especially Chu Chua and Simpcw.”

Mayor Blackwell believes the new map will also help give more representation to the smaller communities north of Kamloops.

“There was no chance in heck that the elected official that represents either one of the north or south ridings was going to be anybody other than somebody necessarily based out of Kamloops or with strong ties to Kamloops. That dynamic has changed a little. I think it opens up opportunities for the next representative from those ridings to be more rural,” added Blackwell.

Other notable changes include Tobiano and Cherry Creek moving into the Cariboo-Chilcotin riding and Merritt possibly losing their MLA Jackie Tegart as Ashcroft and Cache Creek have been removed from Fraser-Nicola riding also added to the north.

“As we pointed out to Jackie (Tegart) and others for whom that is the case, there are lots of MLAs that represent ridings that they don’t technically live within. In fact, Peter Milobar doesn’t currently live within his riding. He lives in mine,” said Stone.

With all the changes, Stone believes MLAs of all stripes will be taking time to weigh their futures ahead of the next election.

“Those personal decisions will be made first and then once individuals have decided, ‘Yes, I’m running again,’ then if it is even a necessary reality to consider locally where you happen to be, then it’s which riding do you run in,” stated Stone.