Monday, May 2, 2011

A Bit Of Election Trivia - Winnipeg North

Winnipeg North is a rather large and diverse riding, or that's what has been said in the Media. So, I got on the internet and started googling for maps, and borders, and information. What I found was a map of Winnipeg North, showing some strange angular cuts marking its territory. I thought the northern boundary would be Leila, or maybe a little north of that. I was actually shocked to see how it was divided.  In my neck of the woods Inkster is the northern boundary. Then the riding continues up McPhillips to Leila and cuts to the West for a while. It goes north again just before Brookside, then west again before reaching the Perimeter Highway.
I had a look at the map to see what was in each area in an effort to understand these strange turns in the map. It almost looks like somone grabbed a pair of scissors and took the Northern Part of Winnipeg, from the CP tracks at Dufferin to the Perimiter Highway, and carefully chose the prime spots where businesses, shopping centers, hospitals, and newer housing were located, and left the rest behind. The rest would be Winnipeg North, and what was snipped out was Kildonan / St Paul.
Included in the scissor snipping was Amber Trails, a small but affluent community that was carefully excluded to the north of Leila just before the Winnipeg North riding takes a turn up Ritchie Street.
Then the Selkirk / Interlake people showed up with their scissors and chopped out a chunk inside the perimeter from Brookside along Mollard Road to Ritchie Street to grab what used to be a fairly large Honda dealership.
The way I see it, Winnipeg North lost out on the Transit building on Main Street and the two strip malls between Inkster and Leila. Then over at McPhillips they were not given Northgate Plaza or Garden City Shopping Center. And they missed out on the car dealerships on Main and McPhillips between Inkster and Leila. Then the Seven Oaks Hospital was cut out of the riding at the intersection of Leila and Mcphillips to add insult to injury.
I really don't know who decided on the borders of Winnpeg North, and how the property got divided. But it sure struck me as funny when I took a closer look at the area called Winnipeg North. Even the shape of Winnipeg North's riding looks chopped at compared to the shape of Kildonan / St Paul and Selkirk / Interlake. I don't know, but it sure struck me as odd that all of the affluent areas were not included in Winnpeg North.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting. I suspect it is formed like that in order to ensure Kildonan- St. Paul and Selkirk-Interlake have Conservative MPs though you would have to a historical search of riding boundaries to verify that conclusion.

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  2. http://www.elections.ca/scripts/fedrep/federal_e/red/readjusting_e.htm.

    Why don't you go to the Elections Canada webpage and educate yourselves about how boundaries are drawn for ridings. It is usually done after a census and there is a commision that does it. Not everything is a "Harper" conspiracy. Honestly, how ignorant can you get.

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  3. Ask the federal NDP or the provincial Conservatives if they feel there is no gerrymandering going on. Even the page you link from Elections Canada admits it was an overt process until the 1960s.

    Now they wrap some public hearings around the process but in the end it is the same thing- the governing party never comes out of reallocation a loser.

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