Heads up, Canada! Ridings are being redistricted.

[Saviolo]

Last night, the new NDP candidate for our riding was pounding the pavement, handing out flyers. I live in Kensington Market in Toronto, which has, up until now, been in the riding of Trinity-Spadina. Well, she was handing out flyers for University-Rosedale. I was wondering if maybe she had wandered across a riding barrier and not realized it, but also, I had never heard of Univeristy-Rosedale before. So, I went to the Elections Canada website. You can see what your current riding is, and what your riding will be for the upcoming federal election here:

http://www.elections.ca/Scripts/vis/ChooseED?L=e&QID=-1&PAGEID=20

Yeah, turns out I'm in a new riding called University-Rosedale that is such obvious gerrymandering.

http://www.elections.ca/Scripts/vis/Map338?L=e&ED=35110&EV=99&EV_TYPE=6&PC=M5T2N5&PROV=ON&PROVID=35&QID=-1&PAGEID=27

Looks to me like they're trying to balance out us hippies, commies, and liberals in Kensington/Univeristy/Little Portugal/Little Italy with the rich conservative voters up in Rosedale.

Heads up. Make sure you know what your riding is for the upcoming federal election!

[riverbendviewgal]

1. Thanks for that

I made sure I was registered and emailed all my friends.

Lets turn our government Orange this election!

[Saviolo]

2. Sure hope so!

My riding has always been solidly orange. It was Olivia Chow's riding before she left the federal scene to take a shot at Toronto Mayor. Looks like she's going to go back to federal politics, too, which I think is great.

Right now, we're solidly red, though. The by-election sent Adam Vaughn (L) to Ottawa, and I'm really not sure what's going to happen next election. I'd love to think that this riding is still an NDP bastion, but lots of Torontonians are still stinging after what Horwath did on the provincial level, and I think the left might be split between Liberal and NDP. It'll be interesting to see what sort of change this re-districting brings to the race. I'm hoping for NDP, but it's not a guarantee this time around.

[riverbendviewgal]

3. If Jack Layton had lived

there would be no Prime Minster Harper..

[laundry_queen]

7. No kidding

*sigh*

[alcina]

4. It may not be all that bad

They've essentially taken Rosedale and Moore Park away from Toronto-Centre and moved them into the new University-Rosedale riding, along with the north part of Trinity-Spadina. And then the lower half of Trinity-Spadina is the new Spadina-Fort York riding, in which Olivia Chow is now running. It'll be interesting to see how she does against Adam Vaughan.

On the plus side, Toronto-Centre is now free of Rosedale; and because it's a new riding, there's no incumbent. (The current MP is going to University-Rosedale.) So it's possible both Toronto-Centre and Spadina-Ft York can go NDP.

As for University-Rosedale, it might be up for grabs. Though given that it's cobbled together from two firmly Liberal ridings -- and the Lib candidate is a popular incumbent -- Jennifer Hollett has a quite a challenge.

Jennifer who? as four NDP friends from that riding recently said to me....

[Saviolo]

5. She was pounding the pavement...

I missed it, but my hubby got the flyer (which is how we found out about the redistricting). Hubby said she seemed nice. I traditionally vote NDP federally. I was tempted to swing L for this election because it seemed like Trudeau had more momentum against Harper, but after the Liberal support of C51 and KeystonXL, I'm done with them. Looks like I'll continue an uninterrupted string of NDP votes on the federal stage.

[laundry_queen]

6. Thanks for that

Mine has changed. Again. I think the riding I'm currently in has been changed every second election or so. And yeah, in my riding they cut out the 'left wing' urban area and joined us up with a more rural, right wing area. Lovely.

[OnlyBernieBurnsBush]

8. Not gerrymandering...

The Tories don't care who wins NDP-Liberal battlegrounds. Just remember to vote NDP!

[Saviolo]

9. Toronto isn't strictly NDP/Lib battle ground

There are some conservative areas inside Toronto, and not just in the burbs/905.

http://canadianelectionatlas.blogspot.ca/2011_07_01_archive.html

Elections Canada doesn't like Harper, especially with the demise of the long form census. I'm thinking that this redistricting of my riding is actually to balance the less-dense but more-conservative area of Rosedale with the extremely dense and very orange little Portugal, Little Italy, University, and Kensington Market area.

My current MP, Adam Vaughn (Lib), will be running in the new Spadina/Fort York riding to the south of me against Olivia Chow (NDP). That race has me worried, because they're both popular, and there's a fear of splitting the left there. However, even with the left split, it's likely that the CPC won't have enough support to snag that region. I only know who the NDP candidate is for my riding, haven't met the Liberal candidate, yet.