Electoral Boundaries – Many features of Canada’s federal political landscape have evolved over time, including the geographical boundaries of electoral districts.
The Constitution of Canada mandates that federal electoral districts, also called ridings or constituencies, be realigned in a process known as redistribution following every federal census, which usually occurs once a decade.
Following the 2021 census, the latest federal redistribution process was initiated, and this process concluded in October 2023, resulting in changes to the names and boundaries of many ridings across Canada, including the riding where the Town of Golden is situated. Golden’s current riding of Kootenay — Columbia will be realigned into two redistributed ridings following the next federal election, and Golden will be in the newly realigned riding of Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies.
As the name reflects, part of the city of Kamloops is included in this new riding stretching from the centre of Kamloops to Field near the BC-Alberta border, which will include Golden. The area of the new riding is vast and is comparable to that of the entire province of New Brunswick and more than three times larger than Prince Edward Island, which is represented by four ridings.
As the riding of Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies will stretch east to west, Golden will no longer share a riding as it currently does with communities to the south like Invermere, Nelson, Cranbrook, and Fernie that will be in the newly aligned riding of Columbia—Kootenay—Southern Rockies.
In the next federal election, Golden’s current federal representative, MP Rob Morrison, will be the Conservative candidate in Columbia—Kootenay—Southern Rockies while MP Mel Arnold who currently represents North Okanagan-Shuswap will be the Conservative candidate in Golden’s new riding, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies.
