Federal electoral districts redistribution 2022

Names of the Districts

A variety of principles can be applied to the naming of districts. In its proposal, the Commission followed three main principles.

  1. Names should be as simple as possible to provide for easy reference, both in the House of Commons and elsewhere.
  2. Names should reflect, to the greatest extent possible, the geographical features of a district. Names of towns should be avoided as the choice of one community, of necessity, leaves out other communities.
  3. Names should be faithful to the history of that part of the province.

Following public consultation, the Commission has maintained this approach. It endeavoured to streamline district nomenclature with several proposed changes. However, it also understood that naming can be quite contentious, and indeed, historically across Canada, changes to district names are the reason for 10% of the objections filed by the public, and 10% of the objections filed by MPs, to boundary commission proposals. The Commission was open to conversations with the public about all the details of its work; in fact, a discussion of names took up a sizable portion of conversations during the public hearings phase of this process.

Avalon

Avalon will retain its current name. The district occupies a significant amount of the Avalon Peninsula, even when we consider the portion on the west that will move into the neighbouring district. The name is clear, is easily recognizable and does not create ambiguity, and there was no issue raised about this name in the public consultations.

Bonavista—Burin—Trinity

The Commission, in its proposal, recommended that this district be renamed Terra Nova—The Peninsulas. The new name reflects the inclusion of the towns of Grates Cove, Old Perlican, Heart's Desire and Heart's Content, on Conception Bay and Trinity Bay, as well as Branch and Placentia on St Mary's Bay and Placentia Bay, among others. It will also better represent the district's geography and community makeup. The first part of the name, Terra Nova, is easily recognizable because of Terra Nova National Park. The revised boundary now includes four major peninsulas: the Burin and Bonavista Peninsulas, the Bay de Verde Peninsula and Cape St Mary's. The public consultation generally supported this approach, and there were no objections received.

Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame

While this district's boundaries did not undergo major changes, the Commission thought that its name did not meet any of the objectives of simplicity, recognizability or history. Drawing on the location of the district in the centre of the island and how this area is known colloquially in the province, the Commission had proposed that the name be changed to Notre Dame—Bay d'Espoir. However, this proposal met with significant resistance during the public hearings. Several people thought that the name did not adequately reflect the major communities in the central part of the province. Others said that they did not identify with either of these two names. There were several suggestions that the name include the word "Central" as that was the term most associated with this region. Based on the feedback received, the Commission changes the name of this riding to Central Newfoundland.

Labrador

The Commission is not recommending a change in name for the district of Labrador. The name is clear and recognizable, and it reflects the district's geographical area and historical continuity.

Long Range Mountains

The Commission is not recommending a change to the name of this district. The name reflects a dominant geographical feature, the mountain range that is present in almost the full north-south length of the district, and it preserves some historical continuity as this is already the name of the district.

St. John's East

Although the name St. John's East deviates from the geographical naming principle, the Commission thought that its strong historical provenance, dating from 1832 provincially and 1949 federally, as well as its reflection of the name of the capital city of the province, was sufficiently important to warrant keeping the existing name. It meets the objectives of simplicity, recognizability and history. There was broad support during the public consultations for keeping the name based on its history. Accordingly, the Commission proposes no change to the name of this district.

St. John's South—Mount Pearl

This district was formerly called St. John's West. It was changed in 2012 to reflect its correct geographical orientation of north-south, even though history and local usage, through many generations, have used east-west. Recognizing that there are several significant municipalities in the riding apart from St. John's and Mount Pearl, all of which cannot be named explicitly in the riding name, the Commission has opted to continue its emphasis on the geographical naming principle. A major geographical feature of this district is its distinction as the most easterly point in North America.

While there was some discussion during the consultations about the name of this riding, the focus tended to be on the geographical orientation of the riding—that the divisions in St. John's were not east and west but north and south. However, there was no objection received to the Commission's proposal. Accordingly, the riding name will change to Cape Spear. It meets the objectives of simplicity, geography and history.