Bowmanville – Oshawa North set to become a new federal riding

Some big changes may becoming to the Durham Region federal election map next time residents go to the polls. Two new ridings appear on Elections Canada’s proposed redistribution map in Oshawa and Pickering.

The Canadian Constitution requires federal ridings to be adjusted every ten years based on census population data. The latest process to amend the 2012 redistribution kicked off in October 2021 and is set to wrap up in September 2023.

A independent redistribution committee has been formed for each province to redraw the maps based on population growth. Durham Region has seen rapid growth in recent years climbing from 656,055 people to 699,460 in 2019. The population is only expected to continue to grow, reaching 1.3 million over the next thirty years.

The last redistribution created seven Durham Region ridings;

• Ajax
• Durham
• Haliburton – Kawartha Lakes – Brock
• Northumberland – Peterborough South (containing eastern Clarington)
• Oshawa
• Pickering-Uxbridge, and
• Whitby

These population changes are set to have the following effects on their respective ridings. Each riding will contain roughly 120,000 people.

Ajax

Ajax, while growing quickly and featuring the Region’s most diverse population, will retain it’s riding border in the proposed new map. This riding was created in the 2012 redistribution separating from Ajax-Pickering.

Liberal Mark Holland, currently Leader of the House, is the only representative to have held the riding thus far.

Bowmanville – North Oshawa

A new riding is proposed to contain the southern half of the current riding of Durham. The new riding will contain all of the current boundaries south of Hwy 407 and east of Oshawa Creek. The riding will stretch westward to the current boundary at Townline Rd.

Durham

Durham has been a riding in some iteration or another since 1903. The current boundaries decided, in 2006, include all of Oshawa north of Taunton Rd, the Township of Scugog and Clarington east of Townline. However, in the new map, there is no more Durham riding.

In the proposed new map, Durham is separated into two ridings. The south would become Bowmanville – North Oshawa.

The north meanwhile would be absorbed into Lake Simcoe – Uxbridge, containing Uxbridge (taken from Pickering – Uxbridge) and Scugog townships and the parts of Oshawa and Clarington north of the 407. It will retain its western border on Townline.

Lake Simcoe – Uxbridge would also contain existing York – Simcoe and Markham Stouffville ridings.

Former Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has represented Durham since 2012. The riding has been a Conservative stronghold since 2004.

Haliburton – Kawartha Lakes – Brock

This riding currently contains all of Durham Region’s northernmost township, Brock, from Victoria Corner Rd to Beaverton. The riding as a whole stretched north past Haliburton to Algonquin Park.

The proposed new riding is set to expand slightly to include the north-west corner of the current Peterborough – Kawartha riding to include Bobcaygeon.

Haliburton – Kawartha Lakes – Brock has existed in some form since 1966. It too has remained a Conservative stronghold since 2004. It’s currently represented by Lindsay’s Conservative Jamie Schmale, elected in 2015.

Northumberland – Peterborough South

This riding contains the furthest eastern reaches of Clarington from Townline Rd, including Newcastle and Newtonville. This riding is set to be cleaved in two in the new map.

Northumberland would spin off into its own riding from roughly Newcastle to Brighton. This would also include of course Port Hope, Cobourg and the rest of Northumberland County. The riding would also stretch north up to Norwood.

The section of the old riding north of Rice Lake is set set to rejoin the new Peterborough riding.

Northumberland – Peterborough South is a new riding established in 2015. Conservative Philip Lawrence from Orono has represented the area since 2019.

Oshawa

Oshawa’s riding is set to get a little smaller in the new map. The riding now stretches from the lakeshore to Taunton Rd and from Townline Rd to Thornton Rd.

However the riding is set to lose its northwest corner. The old boundary follows Thornton all the way to Taunton. The new map shows the boundary jag east to the Oshawa Creek at Rossland Road. The area within the change, the Northglen neighbourhood which contains the Oshawa Airport will join Whitby.

This riding was established in 1968 and was dominated in early day by the NDP under leader Ed Broadbent. The NDP lost the seat to the Liberals in 1993 who in turn lost it to the Conservatives in 2004. Colin Carrie has represented the city ever since.

Pickering-Uxbridge

Like Durham, Pickering Uxbridge is also set to lose it’s northern half to Lake Simcoe – Uxbridge. Currently the riding borders Scarborough to the west at Rouge Park.

It runs East along the lake until Squires Beach before heading north to Whitevale Rd to wrap around Ajax. From there the boundary goes east again to Lake Ridge Rd before stretching north to Ravenshoe Rd north of Zephyr.

The new boundary cuts off the northern half at Altona before heading east over Ajax and the north of Whitby to take over the north part of that riding. The forms the new riding of Pickering – Brooklin.

Pickering – Uxbridge was formed in 2015 and has been held by Liberal Jennifer O’Connell ever since.

Whitby

Whitby currently includes everything between Lake Ridge Rd and Thornton Rd from the shore of Lake Ontario to Townline Rd W on the north side of Ashburn.

The new boundary stops at Hwy 407 leaving anything north of that to the new Pickering – Brooklin. However it gains ground through the top corner of Oshawa as the new boundary moves east to Oshawa Creek.

Whitby’s riding was split off from Whitby – Oshawa in 2015. Celina Ceasar-Chevannes was first elected as a Liberal at that time. However she later resigned from the Liberal caucus and did not seek re-election. Ryan Turnbull returned the iding to Liberal hands in 2019.