New Westminster—Burnaby (British Columbia) 198/338

 New Westminster—Burnaby (British Columbia)

Today we're back in Metro Vancouver with New Westminster—Burnaby!

New Westminster—Burnaby has existed as a riding since the 2012 redistribution after previously being used from 1988-1997. The population of the riding was 125,253 in 2021. The riding contains the city of New Westminster (78,916 in 2021) and Burnaby. This is the first time since 2000 that New Westminster has stayed completely intact during a redistribution.

Politically, New Westminster has generally been friendly to the NDP, even during the 1993 and 1997 elections, when the NDP were in a weakened state, they were still within 2,000 votes of winning the seat. From 2004-2015, New Westminster was split down the middle, however, because Coquitlam is also quite friendly to the NDP, it didn't affect results too much. The seat is currently represented by NDP MP Peter Julian.

On May 2nd, 2022, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for BC released their proposal for the new federal electoral boundaries, adding a new riding for a total of 43. Currently, Burnaby is split between three ridings, New Westminster is contained in one. Under the proposed boundaries, Burnaby is split between six ridings and New Westminster two, including one across the Fraser River into Surrey. There are public hearings currently occurring across the country, as these boundaries aren't set in stone. In 2019, this seat was 32/42 in BC and 199/338 in Canada by margin.

The name is great, no criticism here. The shape is also pretty good, I don't really know how else to draw it otherwise. As for individuality, this part of the Lower Mainland is pretty friendly to the NDP, provincially and federally.

Tomorrow we'll be back in the GTA with Newmarket—Aurora!