Commentaire 10 (6 avril 2022) – commentaires et rétroaction

Duncan Hamilton

Hi,

I would like to submit my views on where the boundaries should be aligned within the Capital region as well as some consequential comments on all Manitoba Federal ridings.  I currently live in Winnipeg Centre in the West End of Winnipeg near Polo Park and Wolseley.

I believe have two core Winnipeg ridings would allow for better alignment of communities with similar interests, and that share business districts.  In Winnipeg route 90 should serve as a major boundary dividing West Winnipeg and the current riding of Charleswood-St. James-Assinniboia and Headinley and the Winnipeg Centre and Winnipeg North and Winnipeg south ridings.     I would create two Winnipeg Centre ridings with one being Winnipeg North Centre and one being Winnipeg South Centre, replacing the Winnipeg Centre south riding.   To do this I would add the provincial riding of Wolseley, and the West Broadway and downtown Broadway area north of Broadway to the Forks into the new Winnipeg South Centre riding.   The community and riding of Wolseley and West Broadway has much in common with the neighbourhoods across the river that they are connected to through a number of bridges, the Donald st. bridge, the Maryland bridge and the Osborne bridge.    I live in the West end and often go for walks down Wellington crescent and through Fort rouge and Wolseley and most of my shopping and services are also done in those neighbourhoods.   I recommend Portage Avenue and Broadway become the new boundary between the two Winnipeg Centre ridings, move most of the provincial Wolseley riding into the Winnipeg Centre South riding along with everything South of Broadway all the way to the forks.   I would also add the neighbourhoods south of portage and south of polopark know as West Wolseley into Winnipeg Centre South and the apartment buildings adjacent to Route 90, with that serving as the western boundary.

Winnipeg Centre North should then add the communities and the provincial ridings of Elmwood and Point Douglas into Winnipeg Centre North and Winnipeg Centre North should stretch down Selkirk Avenue to take in all of Notre Dame, Burrows, the Brooklands and Weston neighbourhoods all the way to Route 90.  These communities all have similar demographics and housing concerns and are part of a similar business community and labour community.  Winnipeg Centre North would include most of the west end and downtown area North of Broadway and the Redwood Bridge and other bridges into the Elmwood area.

The Transcona riding should have the RM of Springfield and Oakbank added to it as those communities have similar transportation interests and Transcona and the Lagimodiere and Kildonan Place area, Concordia area all have the same business district and use the same transportation routes and service areas.

The Kildonan St. Paul riding should be expanded northward and Eastward to take in Birds Hill, St. Clements, East Selkirk, Lockport, South part of the RM of St. Andrews, the south part of Selkirk, Narol, Gonor, all of West St. Paul and East St. Paul, West Kildonan and East Kildonan. It could stretch as far north as Main street in Selkirk.   These areas are all very similar communities and are mix of suburban and semi-urban or rurban areas and have similar tourism and business communities and similar transportation and industry routes.

Winnipeg North should take in the rest of the North end of Winnipeg, the Maples, Tyndal Park and Garden City, and the areas and new growing neighborhoods north of Leila and along Mcphillips and Chief Peguis which will be expanding Westward and new communities will be growing in the provincial riding of Mcphillips.  New developments are happening in that area that will grow the population of Winnipeg North.

Charleswood-St. James Assinniboia could be expanded westward to take in more of the capital region including some of the RM of Rosser, in the centre port area, with route 90 being the boundary with Winnipeg North, it should include the airport and the areas that are expected to be developed with new housing north of Saskatchewan avenue.   It could also be expanded westward to take in the bedroom community on the Assinniboine river of St. Francois Xavier, and more of the RM's in the capital region.  South of the assinniboine it could have more of Tuxedo added it to it, but like the main Eastern boundary of the riding should be Route 90.

The riding of Winnipeg South should have an Easter boundary marked by the Red river with St. Boniface-St. vital taking in everything on the East side of the Red River and all of old St.Boniface and St. Vital.     The western boundary should be the perimeter highway by oak bluff and Wilkes Avenue should be the Northern boundary back to route 90 and then north on route 90 to Taylor Avenue and Taylor Avenue should serve as the North boundary with Winnipeg Centre South and that line should continue to the Red River again. It should then follow the Red River south to take in all of St. Norbert and as much of the rural area south of the city needed to ensure Winnipeg  South meets the population requirement.

I would recommend that in Southern Manitoba and the Capital region the commission should aspire to have a variance plus or minus of no more than 2% population difference.

In the Northern riding of Churchill and the Westman ridings a greater variance might be reasonable due to the sparseness of the population in those rural regions.   The existing boundaries for the Churchill-Keewatinook-Aski and Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa and Brandon-Souris likely need little to no change.   If anything I would use the Trans-Canada Highway as the main boundary west of the RM of Portage La Prairie to divide between North and South ridings.  But the existing boundary is suitable as well. 

Highway 75 should likely serve as the main dividing line between the two southern Manitoba ridings of Provencher and the current riding of Portage-Lisgar.

Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman could have some of Portage La Prairie added to it to make up for losing some of St. Andrews, St. Clements, Selkirk and birds hill to Kildonan-St. Paul.

That would return the riding to its traditional previous history as Portage-Interlake, you could also stretch it south of Lake Manitoba over to Westbourne and Highway #68.  I should still include the areas north of Selkirk along #59 up to the beaches area including Grand Marais and Grand Beach, and Eastman including Beasejour, and Lac du Bonnet. Generally the boundaries on the East and north sides of  the riding should remain consistent and it should just expand westward to include some of portage and the areas north of the Trans-Canada, that  are part of the same communities, transportation and business areas of the Interlake region and would include the area that was intended for the Yellowhead route to be continued northof Winnipeg from Westbourne to Whitemouth along Highway #67.  Some of Selkirk which is growing could remain in the riding, but some of it could go into Kildonan-St. Paul.   Most of the rural part of the RM of Rosser outside of the perimeter highway should remain with Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman and all of the RM of Rockwood and most of the RM of ST. Andrews west of #9 and north of Selkirk.  Depending on population numbers, the boundary between Kildonan St. Paul and the Interlake riding could be anywhere from Lockport to Lower Fort Garry or even along Manitoba Avenue or Main st. in Selkirk.    Kildonan-St Paull would take in a lot of the south part of the provincial riding of Red River North.

Bedroom commuter communities in the capital region are likely to grow in the coming years and the communities in southern Manitoba in Provencher and around Morden-Winkler are set to grow significantly in the future.    So it makes sense to take some of those ridings and at the north side and shift those parts to the ridings on the edge of the city of Winnipeg and to the Interlake riding north of the trans canada.

You may want to rename the Portage Lisgar Riding something like Morden-Winkler-Midland to reflect the Midland provincial riding that makes up most of the region and recognizing that it is the middle region of southern Manitoba.

It should still stretch as far north as south port and the south part of Portage La Prairie.   The western boundary of this riding and the eastern boundary of Brandon-Souris could have some changes made as well, but I cannot comment on those areas as I am not familiar with them.  But they could be adjusted along municipal boundaries and for population adjustments.

I hope that these comments are helpful to your deliberations and will be considered as you create your first plan for redistribution of the Manitoba ridings.

I would also like to comment that Manitoba due to its size of geography should be given additional ridings in the next distribution to ensure adequate representation of the province in Ottawa.   As other provinces grow at faster rates our democratic input is being diluted and overtaken.

Thank-you for your consideration of my suggestions

Duncan Hamilton