PoCo Mayor Greg Moore likes the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission's suggestion to keep the City of Port Coquitlam in one federal riding with parts of north Coquitlam.
Photograph by: NOW , file
It looks like the Pitt River will continue to be the divider between the Tri-Cities and Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge, both geographically and politically.
A commission set up to reconfigure the federal ridings in B.C. has opted to create two ridings for the Tri-Cities - Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam and Port Moody-Coquitlam.
The commission originally attached a portion of PoCo into a riding with Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge, which also split the city into three federal ridings.
It was a proposal that sparked plenty of opposition from local politicians on the west side of the Pitt River.
In its final report, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission noted the unfavourable view of the original plan and opted for a change.
It's a move greeted with applause by PoCo Mayor Greg Moore.
He said the initial map that divided the city into three ridings made no sense for Port Coquitlam.
"We, in our [City of Port Coquitlam] opinion, would have been the afterthought to whoever would have been representing us," Moore told
The NOW.
"We got exactly what we had suggested, so we're really pleased."
The mayor, along with several local, provincial and federal politicians, spoke out against the original map at a set of public hearings last fall.
Moore suggested PoCo shares a lot with the northern part of Coquitlam, including police and geographical boundaries.
"It makes a lot of sense we'd be together," he said.
According to the new map laid out by the commission, the new Port Coquitlam-Coquitlam riding includes the entire city of PoCo and parts of Coquitlam Centre north of the Barnet and Lougheed highways.
The Port Moody-Coquitlam riding includes all of Port Moody, Belcarra and Anmore and parts of Coquitlam south of the Barnet and Lougheed.
However, gone under the redistribution are the riding ties between Coquitlam and New Westminster.
In all, B.C. is getting a total of six new electoral ridings, bringing the total in the province to 42.
The commission's report was tabled in the House of Commons on Monday.
