Public Involvement in Redistribution: A Reflection

The Canadian Constitution requires that federal electoral districts be reviewed after each decennial census to reflect population changes. This process, known as redistribution, has two phases: representation and readjustment. Public participation is a crucial stage in the readjustment process. The Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act requires each boundary commission to hold at least one public hearing in the province after the boundary commission develops an initial map proposal. This article offers a reflection on the involvement of the public in the most recent redistribution process. The data in this paper is collated from the 2022 reports of the 10 boundary commissions; data collected from the 2012 redistribution is also used as context. The starting place for analysis will be the work of John Courtney where he draws several conclusions about the involvement of the public in his foundational analysis of boundary commissions prior to 1994. Since it has been almost 20 years since the publication of these works, this gives us an opportunity to reflect on those conclusions using the most recent processes.

Tamara A. Small

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