The British Columbia Electoral Boundaries Commission is an independent commission required to review and determine electoral district boundaries in the province of British Columbia, Canada. [1] The Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia is required by the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act to a call a commission every two elections, consisting of a judge or a retired judge, the provincial Chief Electoral Officer, and another person (who may not be a Member of the Legislative Assembly). [2]
Current MLAs were elected to electoral districts created by the 2015 redistribution. [1] The 43rd British Columbia General Election, scheduled for 2024, will be held under new boundaries. The government appointed commissioners in October 2021. The final report was completed April 3, 2023, and the Legislative Assembly approved the Electoral Districts Act on April 25. At the time of the next election, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly will increase from 87 to 93. The six new seats are in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Langley, Langford, and Kelowna. [3]
An electoral district in Canada is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based. It is officially known in Canadian French as a circonscription but frequently called a comté (county). In Canadian English it is also colloquially and more commonly known as a riding or constituency.
Peace River North is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It was created under the name North Peace River by the Constitution Amendment Act, 1955, which split the old riding of Peace River into northern and southern portions for the 1956 BC election. Its current name has been in use since 1991.
Langley is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. The riding was first contested in the 1966 general election.
Surrey-Panorama Ridge was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada from 2001 to 2009. The district was created in the 1999 redistribution from the southern half of Surrey-Newton, and the western portion of Surrey-Cloverdale. It was abolished following the 2008 redistribution, with a large portion going to the new Surrey-Panorama riding.
Surrey-Whalley is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. The riding's name was resurrected from a former riding in the same area, with similar but not identical boundaries. The newly created riding of Surrey-Whalley kept the majority of the original Surrey-Whalley riding and added a portion of Surrey-Green Timbers.
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It was one of only two electoral districts to return an NDP MLA in the 2001 election when the NDP was nearly wiped off the electoral map, and it did so by a much wider margin than Vancouver-Hastings, the other seat to return a New Democrat.
Vancouver-Point Grey is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It was first contested in the general election of 1933. It was created out of parts of Richmond-Point Grey, South Vancouver and Vancouver City. The riding began as a three-member seat, and was reduced to a two-member seat in 1966 when Vancouver-Little Mountain was created. In the redistribution preceding the 1991 election, it was reduced to a one-member riding along with the other older urban ridings, as several new one-member ridings were created.
Vancouver-Quilchena is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. According to the 2006 census, this riding is the second-wealthiest in British Columbia with an average family income of $91,822, behind West Vancouver-Capilano just across the Burrard Inlet.
West Vancouver-Capilano is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada.
BC-STV is the proposed voting system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in October 2004 for use in British Columbia, and belongs to the single transferable vote family of voting systems. BC-STV was supported by a majority of the voters in a referendum held in 2005 but the government had legislated that it would not be bound by any vote lower than 60 percent in favour. Because of the strong majority support for BC-STV, the government elected to stage a second referendum in 2009, but with increased public funding for information campaigns to better inform the electorate about the differences between the existing and proposed systems. The leadership of both the "yes" side and the "no" side were assigned by the government. The proposal was rejected with 60.9 percent voting against, vs. 39.1 percent in favour, in the 2009 vote.
Dunvegan-Central Peace was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting from 2004 to 2012.
Following the 2005 electoral reform referendum, British Columbia held a second referendum on electoral reform in conjunction with the provincial election on May 12, 2009. As in 2005, voters in 2009 were asked were asked which electoral system should be used to elect legislators: the existing first-past-the-post electoral system or the BC single transferable vote electoral system (BC-STV) proposed by the British Columbia Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform to ensure more proportional representation in the provincial Legislative Assembly.
Surrey-Panorama is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, established by the Electoral Districts Act, 2008. It came into existence following the dissolution of the BC Legislature in April 2009 and was contested for the first time in the 2009 provincial election. The 2008 re-distribution created this riding out of mainly Surrey-Panorama Ridge, with portions of Surrey-Cloverdale and Surrey-White Rock.
Kootenay West is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, established by the Electoral Districts Act, 2008. It was first contested in the 2009 general election.
Surrey-Fleetwood is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, established by the Electoral Districts Act, 2008. It was first contested in the 2009 election. Surrey-Fleetwood is an amalgamation of most of Surrey-Tynehead along with portions of Surrey-Green Timbers, Surrey-Newton and Surrey-Cloverdale.
Redistribution is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral district boundaries, usually in response to periodic census results. Redistribution is required by law or constitution at least every decade in most representative democracy systems that use first-past-the-post or similar electoral systems to prevent geographic malapportionment. The act of manipulation of electoral districts to favour a candidate or party is called gerrymandering.
The federal electoral redistribution of 2012 was a redistribution of electoral districts ("ridings") in Canada following the results of the 2011 Canadian census. As a result of amendments to the Constitution Act, 1867, the number of seats in the House of Commons of Canada increased from 308 to 338. The previous electoral redistribution was in 2003.
The 2017 British Columbia general election was held on May 9, 2017, to elect 87 members (MLAs) to the Legislative Assembly to serve in the 41st Parliament of the Canadian province of British Columbia. In the 40th Parliament prior to this general election, the British Columbia Liberal Party formed the government under the leadership of Christy Clark, while the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP), under the leadership of Adrian Dix and then John Horgan, formed the Official Opposition; the Green Party of British Columbia were also represented in the legislature with sole MLA and later leader Andrew Weaver.
The 42nd Parliament of British Columbia was chosen in the 2020 British Columbia general election. All 87 seats were up for election.