By Michael Bennett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News
Chatham-Kent will be a single riding in 2024 if the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario’s proposed realignment is passed in Parliament.
The commission initially suggested last summer that Chatham-Kent be divided into three different ridings and represented by three MPs in its proposed realignment of Federal districts in Ontario.
Chatham-Kent is currently represented by two ridings – Chatham-Kent Leamington and Lambton-Kent Middlesex, with the Thames River as the dividing line.
Under the commission’s proposed realignment, Ridgetown, Bothwell, Thamesville, Highgate, Moraviantown and their surrounding rural areas would have become part of the new Elgin-Middlesex-Thames riding under the proposed realignment.
The proposed Elgin-Middlesex-Thames riding would have included communities such as Strathroy-Caradoc, Warwick, Middlesex Centre, West Elgin, Dutton Dunwich and parts of Southwold, Central Elgin, Thames Centre and Dawn-Euphemia.
However, the commission opted to drop the plan of dividing Chatham-Kent into three ridings after feedback from municipal officials who opposed the change. The riding will still be known as Chatham-Kent Leamington and will retain Leamington and Pelee Island but will lose the eastern part of Lakeshore to Essex riding.
Chatham-Kent Council passed a motion at its Sept. 12 meeting asking staff to represent the municipality at a virtual public forum in response to the original three-riding proposal.
“The Municipality of Chatham-Kent, a single-tier municipality, expressed concern that it was being split from two into three districts,” the report stated. “In this final plan, the Commission has reconfigured the boundaries so that the Municipality of Chatham-Kent is within one district.”
The commission was created to realign the Federal districts in Ontario because the growing province’s population required a new riding to meet the quota of 116,590 people in each of the 122 electoral districts.
The population covered in the new Chatham-Kent Leamington riding will be 134,226, which is 15.1 percent higher than the quota.
Conservative Dave Epp of Leamington is currently in his second term representing Chatham-Kent Leamington in Ottawa after winning elections in 2019 and 2021.
Chatham’s Dave Van Kesteren, a Conservative, represented Chatham-Kent for the last four terms spanning 13 years.
The new boundary changes will take effect for Federal elections after April 2024 if passed in Parliament.
