The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission of Nova Scotia is calling for the formation of the new riding of Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish.
According to a report submitted by the commission two weeks ago, the new federal electoral district would take in Antigonish town and county, the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, as well as Inverness, Richmond, and Victoria counties.
Also included in this proposal are rural parts of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, putting the population of the new configuration at 75,141.
According to a press release issued on Nov. 17, the commission said its aim was to bring the populations of most of the 11 electoral districts in Nova Scotia “within a closer range,” which resulted in “significant adjustments to the existing boundaries.”
Cindy A. Bourgeois, the chair of the three-member commission, said they received advice from many citizens and organizations across the province, and the commission is satisfied that it balanced its statutory obligations with the views of the people of Nova Scotia in striving for effective representation.
The commission said the report was tabled in the House of Commons on Nov. 17, then sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons through the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. They said the report will be reviewed by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
As it is mandated to do every 10 years, the commission started its review in February, using the 2021 Census population counts
Bourgeois said the commission had to distribute 969,383 people among 11 ridings in Nova Scotia, which comes out to an average of 88,126 people in each riding.
Among the considerations for the commission was voting parity, history, existing boundaries, and they looked at the current Cape Breton-Canso riding which has a population around 71,000, while Sydney-Victoria has a total of 72,000, Bourgeois noted.
With parts of the Strait area, like Antigonish town and county, experiencing population growth, while outmigration trends have subsided in other parts of the region, Bourgeois said those trends had to be put in context against population growth in other parts of Nova Scotia.
Aside from the numbers, Bourgeois said there are also First Nation communities to consider in both Cape Breton ridings.
The commission announced in April that it was starting the public consultation phase.
On May 31, Antigonish Town Hall hosted one of nine in-person public hearings across the province held by the commission.
At the time, the commission was proposing the formation of a new riding to be called Cape Breton-Antigonish, with a population of 84,999 that took in the counties of Antigonish and Richmond, the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, Inverness County, south of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, as well as communities within Cape Breton Regional Municipality that are in the Cape Breton-Canso riding.
This new proposal is a change from that configuration, but it’s clear the intent of the commission was to reunite the urban centres of the CBRM, as well as the rural counties of Cape Breton and eastern mainland Nova Scotia.
Although geographically vast, the potential riding of Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish includes rural communities with similar economies (fishing, forestry, and farming), historical connections (they were included in the former federal riding of Cape Breton Highlands-Canso), and a reasonable population over 75,000.
Population-wise, this might be fewer than other ridings in Nova Scotia, but this proposal makes sense.
In this new riding, the First Nations of We’koqma’q, Potlotek, Paqntkek, would be joined with Eskasoni and Wagmatcook to form a formidable coalition with similar goals and perspectives that can effectively push for priorities attentive to the needs of Unama’ki.
Because the communities are so similar, this riding includes municipalities and provincial constituencies that have been working and lobbying together toward common goals for decades.
And, this removes urban parts of the CBRM from the current riding of Cape Breton-Canso. Rejoining the Glace Bay area with Sydney and New Waterford makes sense, even if the new riding of Sydney-Glace Bay is much smaller geographically.
Whether intentional or not, this was the correction of mistakes made decades ago when Inverness, Richmond, Guysborough, and Antigonish counties were unceremoniously ripped from their own federal riding and dispersed to a riding containing Pictou County in the mainland, then a second riding containing the Glace Bay area in Cape Breton.
Although officials in both Antigonish town and county have expressed a desire to remain with Pictou County in the riding of Central Nova, it’s possible rejoining those communities with those with which they have so much in common, will sooth any apprehensions.
In Cape Breton, no one was happy with Cape Breton-Canso where the regions within the CBRM had a disproportionate share of the vote, and communities in Inverness and Richmond were awkwardly tacked on to round out the population. The current riding dilutes the democratic clout of the rural areas.
In this new scenario, power was returned to Strait area voters, and their future choices for representation will be a better reflection of the needs of local communities.