Some Courtenay voters are in a different riding for the upcoming 2025 federal election.
In 2022, some federal electoral districts in B.C. were re-drawn to account for population change. The Courtenay-Alberni and North Island-Powell River ridings were two of these, with the changes happening in within the Courtenay city limits.
Based on the new map, voters living on the north-east side of the Courtenay River are now part of the North Island-Powell River riding. That riding includes Comox, Campbell River, Port Hardy, Port McNeill and Powell River areas. The rest of the city is part of the Courtenay-Alberni riding as it was in the 2021 federal election.
The reason for the shift is increasing population in Nanaimo, which has led it to be under-represented.
鈥淲e are proposing that its northern boundary be moved to the south and, for balance, that a portion of the City of Courtenay from Courtenay-Alberni be incorporated in North Island-Powell River, giving Courtenay two electoral districts,鈥� the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for British Columbia wrote in 2022 when the map was first proposed.
After the change, the North Island-Powell River riding represents 125,964 people, and the Courtenay-Alberni riding represents 123,978, based on numbers provided in 2022.
The commission was mandated in November, 2021 by the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act to start the reconfiguration process. Reconfiguration is required by the Canadian constitution to take place every 10 years after the census. Part of that process included adding one riding to the province, which would bring it up to 43. Vancouver Island was one of two possible regions to get that new riding, but the commission decided that the region was already well-represented.
One of the other notable ridings affected by the change is Burnaby South, which is currently represented by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. Singh will be running in the new Burnaby Central riding.
