Don Valley West (Ontario) 85/338

 Don Valley West (Ontario)

Today we're wrapping up our Don Valley adventure with Don Valley West!

Don Valley West has existed as a riding since 1979, created from the former Don Valley riding. The population was 102,508 in 2016. The riding contains the neighbourhoods of York Mills, Leaside, and Thorncliffe Park. The riding is one of the most Muslim in the country, with about 13.6% of the riding being Muslim.

Politically, you can guess the answer. However, this riding had a bit more of a Conservative history compared to the other Don Valley ridings. From 1972-1993, this riding was represented by Progressive Conservative MP's, including Speaker of the House John Bosley. The riding went Conservative in 2011 by just over 600 votes, but quickly flipped back to the Liberals in 2015. The riding is currently represented by Liberal MP Rob Oliphant.

Provincially, this riding is represented by Liberal MPP and former premier Kathleen Wynne. In her second election in the riding, she defeated Progressive Conservative leader and future mayor of Toronto, John Tory. Kathleen Wynne was the first female premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada. She narrowly won the seat in 2018 by just 181 votes. In 2019, this seat was 96/121 in Ontario and 229/338 in Canada.

Rating:

Name: 8.9/10 - Harmless for the most part, it's a little too far west for me to be completely happy calling it Don Valley, but it's close enough.

Shape: 6.5/10 - It passes, but it just doesn't sit right with me, the river is very, well, riverous.

Individuality: 8.4/10 - I will say that it is interesting seeing how Conservative this riding was for two decades and how it turned around as soon as Chretien showed up.

Total: 23.8/30 (79.3%)

Tomorrow we're back in Montreal with Dorval—Lachine—Lasalle!

Don Valley North (Ontario) 84/338

 Don Valley North (Ontario)

Today we're one riding north with Don Valley North!

Don Valley North existed as a riding from 1988-1997 and was recreated in the 2012 redistribution. The population of the riding was 110,076 in 2016. The riding contains the neighbourhoods of Don Valley Village, Bayview Village, and Hillcrest Village. This riding is one of three in Toronto where Chinese is the most frequent ethnic origin (32.4%) and the most common ethnic group (31.3%).

Politically, this seat is basically the same as Don Valley East (using Willowdale as reference from 1997-2011. It had only voted in Liberals from 1993-2011 when the Conservatives took the seat by just 932 votes over Liberal Martha Hall Findlay, who, on a side note, finished in a distant third in the 2013 Liberal Leadership election, behind Joyce Murray and Justin Trudeau. The riding is currently represented by Liberal MP Han Dong. 

Han Dong, while first elected federally in 2019, had been a Member of Provincial Parliament in Trinity—Spadina from 2014, defeating longtime NDP MPP Rosario Marchese, to his defeat in 2018. Han Dong replaced retiring MP Geng Tan in 2019, who was the first MP of Mandarin-speaking heritage elected. In 2019, this seat was 57/121 in Ontario and 139/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 9.7/10 - Again, basically perfect. I'd like something a bit more specific than "north", maybe Bayview or Hillcrest.

Shape: 10/10 - I love it so much. Look at those major roads!!!

Individuality: 3.2/10 - The MP's are interesting, but I have to knock this riding down quite a bit for being very Toronto.

Total: 22.9/30 (76.3%)

Tomorrow we're rounding out our Don Valley excursion with Don Valley West!

Don Valley East (Ontario) 83/338

Don Valley East (Ontario)

Today we're starting our mid-week jaunt into Don Valley with Don Valley East!

Don Valley East has existed as a riding since 1976. The population was 94,579 in 2016. The riding contains the Don Mills, Parkwoods, and Bermondsey neighbourhoods. The riding is on the easternmost edge of Toronto proper, bordering Scarborough. 

Politically, this seat has been pretty typical for a Toronto suburb: solidly Liberal except for 2011 and maybe the Mulroney years. 2011 particularly this race was tighter than expected. While the Conservative Joe Daniel won with just 37% of the vote, with Liberal Yasmin Ratansi finishing just behind with 35%, and the NDP finished with 25% of the vote. This was one of five races in Toronto where all three parties received at least 25% of the vote. The riding will be held by Liberal MP Michael Coteau.

Yasmin Ratansi, the former MP, was the first Muslim woman elected to Parliament in 2004, although her first run for Parliament was in 1988, finishing less than 3,000 votes behind cabinet minister Alan Redway. Ratansi used public funds to employ her sister for at least nine years while in office. After the findings, she resigned from the Liberal caucus and sat as an independent until the end of the parliamentary session. In 2019, this seat was 115/121 in Ontario and 282/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 9.5/10 - I love neighbourhood names, especially in cities this large.

Shape: 7.6/10 - It's mostly non-offensive, not a huge fan of following a river in this scenario.

Individuality: 4.2/10 - Cool how close it was in 2011, but yeah it's very Toronto, which isn't a good thing.

Total: 21.3/10 (71%)

Tomorrow we're back in Don Valley North!

Desnethé–Missinippi–Churchill River (Saskatchewan) 82/338

Desnethé–Missinippi–Churchill River (Saskatchewan)

Today we're in Northern Saskatchewan with Desnethé–Missinippi–Churchill River!

Desnethé–Missinippi–Churchill River has existed as a riding since 1997. The population of the riding was 70,891 in 2016. The population centers are Meadow Lake (5,344 in 2016), La Ronge (2,688 in 2016), and La Loche (2,372 in 2016). The riding contains communities with the "Northern Village", "Northern Town", and "Northern Hamlet" distinction, which is unique to Saskatchewan and Quebec.

Politically, this seat has gone through some wild swings as of late. In 2011, the swung 26 points to second in the riding. The next election, the Liberals swung 28% into second. However, in 2015, the three major parties were almost within 4 points of each other, so the Conservatives gained 12% in 2019 to take the riding. The riding is currently represented by Conservative MP Gary Vidal.

You might be thinking: why is this riding so Conservative, isn't it NDP provincially? That is partially true, there are southern provincial ridings that went pretty hard for the Saskatchewan Party. However, the issue for the non-Conservative parties is that with the Liberals and NDP fighting over the north, the Conservatives can swoop in with the southern communities that typically vote Conservative and cut through the split. Add on the fact that the current MP is the former mayor of Meadow Lake, the largest community in the riding, it will be tough for the other parties to win. In 2019, this seat was 2/13 in Saskatchewan and 130/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 6.4/10 - I was searching for 30 minutes on the first two names, so I'm not sure how to rate it. All I will say is that it is too long and could easily just be Athabasca—Cumberland or something like that.

Shape: 7.9/10 - This is really good! Granted, three of the edges are provincial borders. Also, it's a bit lower because of the odd boundaries in the south, but again, not awful.

Individuality: 8.7/10 - We love a good old swing.

Total: 23/30 (76.7%)

Tomorrow we're back in Toronto with Don Valley East!

Delta (British Columbia) 81/338

 Delta (British Columbia) 

Today we're in the Lower Mainland with Delta!

Delta existed as a riding from 1988-1997 and was recreated in 2012, from Newton—North Delta and Delta—Richmond East. The population was 103,064 in 2016. The riding is made up of the district municipality of Delta (102,238 in 2016), which contains the communities of North Delta, Ladner (22,193 in 2016), and Tsawwassen (21,588 in 2016). The riding borders the town of Point Roberts, Washington, which was given to the United States when the Canada/US border was determined to be the 49th parallel, despite the peninsula being less than 5 square miles. 

Politically, this seat had been held by a conservative MP from 1972-2015, voting in line with the rest of the southern Lower Mainland. However, that streak was broken in 2015 when the Liberals won their majority and won more than half the seats in the Lower Mainland. Despite the Liberals falling out of favour in 2019, they still won this seat by 41.2%, still 8.2% more than the Conservative candidate. This seat is currently held by Liberal MP and minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion, Carla Qualtrough.

Carla Qualtrough was born in Calgary and raised in my hometown of Langley, British Columbia. She is visually impaired and won three bronze medals from her time at the 1988 and 1992 Summer Paralympics for swimming. She served as a human rights lawyer, specifically with the BC Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Her human rights work netted her the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. In 2019, this seat was 19/42 in BC and 83/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 10/10 - Perfect. Why can't all municipalities have the perfect boundaries for electoral districts?

Shape: 10/10 - Read above.

Individuality: 8.6/10 - I love how it led us on by staying conservative until 2015 hit and hasn't really been close since.

Total: 28.6/30 (95.3%)

Tomorrow we're in northern Saskatchewan with Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River!

Davenport (Ontario) 80/338

 Davenport (Ontario)

Today we're in Toronto with Davenport!

Davenport has existed as a riding since 1935. The population was 108,473 in 2016. The riding contains the neighbourhoods of Junction Triangle, Dovercourt Park, and Davenport. The riding is in the city of Toronto (2,731,571 in 2016, shared with 24 other ridings). The riding is one of the most Portuguese riding in the country, at 22.7%.

Politically, this riding has been very tight in the past three elections. In fact, it has been the closest in Toronto in those three elections, going from a 1,441 vote difference in 2015 to a 76 vote difference in 2021. The interesting part of the riding being so NDP compared to the rest of the city is in 2011, the other ridings that were over 50% NDP were Toronto—Danforth and Trinity—Spadina, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow's ridings. This riding is currently represented by Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz.

While this riding has only gone NDP once federally, it has been NDP provincially 27 of the past 45 years (using Dovercourt as the former riding). However, there really wasn't a federal NDP appetite until 2004 when they surged 20 points to get 34% of the vote. They declined in 2006 and 2008 until they surged another 20 points to win the riding in 2011. In 2019, this seat was 8/121 in Ontario and 26/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 8.6/10 - For a city so large, it's nice that the redistribution commissions have kept this name and neighbourhood intact.

Shape: 7.8/10 - Pretty good, I know you have to follow roads, but it just seems a little off on the edges, especially the east side.

Individuality: 9.2/10 - It's really interesting how NDP it has been provincially but didn't catch on federally until 2011.

Total: 25.6/30 (85.3%)

Tomorrow we're back in BC with Delta!

Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa (Manitoba) 79/338

 Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa (Manitoba)

Today we're back in Manitoba with Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa!

Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa has existed as a riding since the 2012 redistribution, created from Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, Brandon—Souris, and Portage—Lisgar. The population was 87,527 in 2016. The population centers are Dauphin (8,547 in 2016), Neepawa (4,609 in 2016), and Swan River (4,014 in 2016). The town of Neepawa grew 27% between 2011 and 2016, going from 3,629 people to 4,609 people.

Politically, this seat has been held by a conservative since 1997. It actually went Liberal in 1993, which is much more recently than most other prairie seats who haven't changed affiliation since the 40's or 50's. The 1993 and 1997 elections were particularly interesting in this riding: In 1993, the four major (non-Quebec) parties got over 15% of the vote, and in 1997, all four got 20% or more. This seat is currently held by Conservative MP Dan Mazier.

The former MP, Inky Mark, has quite a story. Before federal politics, he served as the mayor of Dauphin. He served in the House of Commons, changing party affiliation five times, starting as a Reform MP, then to Alliance, then to Democratic Representative Caucus (protest to Stockwell Day's leadership), then to Progressive Conservative, then ultimately to Conservative. He resigned in 2010 to run for mayor of Dauphin again, but lost this time. He ran in 2015 as an independent, only getting about 8% of the vote. In 2019, this seat was 12/14 in Manitoba and 307/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 6.8/10 - I appreciate the effort, and it isn't all bad, but naming population centers really doesn't work in a riding so rural.

Shape: 5.7/10 - The combination of the lakes and the southern municipal boundaries knocks this down quite a bit. Props to the clean lines on the north and west.

Individuality: 4.7/10 - I love how chaotic it was in the 90's, but other than that, it really isn't too different from the other rural prairie ridings.

Total: 17.2/30 (57.3%)

No post tomorrow, going to a friend's place in rural Ontario (wish me luck). Also this gives the judicial recount some extra time, because the next time I talk to you, we'll be in Davenport!