New candidate announcement encourages look at new electoral boundaries
Justyne Edgell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The next federal election is slated to occur on or around October 20, 2025 (although this date could change if an election is called), and Uxbridge voters will be cast their votes in the new York-Durham Electoral District.
Replacing the current Pickering-Uxbridge riding, held by Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell, the new York-Durham district (where former Uxbridge councillor Jacob Mantle recently announced his candidacy for the Conservative party) will cover the Town of Georgina, a section of the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, the townships of Brock, Scugog and Uxbridge, and the Indian reserves of Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation and Mississaugas of Scugog Island.
In this new boundary, Uxbridge will be combined with sections from each of the following ridings; the former Durham riding, the former Haliburton-Kawartha-Brock riding, the former Oshawa riding and the former Markham-Stouffville riding.
Map from redecoupage-redistribution-2022.ca Bold black outline added by the Cosmos.
New federal electoral districts were put into effect across the country on April 23, 2024.
According to electionscanada.ca, “The Constitution of Canada requires that federal electoral districts be reviewed after each decennial (every 10 years) census to reflect changes and movements in Canada's population.”
In October 2021, the most recent redistribution process began. A process which entails the chief electoral officer applying a representation formula to recalculate how many members of Parliament (MPs) need to be assigned to each province. Independent electoral boundaries commissions then work separately in each province to review the electoral boundaries and revise them, if necessary.
In the 2021 federal election, the Durham, Haliburton-Kawartha-Brock and Oshawa ridings voted in favour of the Conservative party, whereas the Pickering-Uxbridge and Markham-Stouffville ridings swung Liberal.
More information on voting district, new and past, can be found on the Elections Canada website, https://www.elections.ca/.