Changes to Manitoba’s electoral boundaries could provide some interesting storylines in the south end of the city, according to one political expert.

Changes were made to all but one of the province’s 57 political ridings in 2008, and will be in effect in October’s election.

Many boundaries names were adjusted – like Taché to Dawson Trail, and Inkster to Tyndall Park – in order to “better reflect the communities,” declares the Manitoba Electoral Boundaries Commission report. What was known as Fort Garry is now Fort Richmond, and Pembina-Jubilee became Fort Garry-Riverview.

“The battleground for the election is south Winnipeg, and the re-zoning might have an impact,” said Christopher Adams, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg and author of Politics in Manitoba.

“Boundary changes can influence a razor thin victory or defeat. It slightly benefits the NDP, because they tend to do well in Winnipeg.”

For candidates like Kerri Irvine-Ross, the NDP candidate in Fort Richmond, Adams predicts there will be a number of voters who won’t be as familiar with her as in her old riding because of significant boundary shifts.

“There may be some impact on her,” he said.

Changes to electoral boundaries are made every 10 years, as mandated by the province’s Electoral Divisions Act. Using the most recent census and population data, ridings are created as equally as possible with about 20,000 residents in each one.

The commission consists of Manitoba’s Chief Justice, the presidents of the University of Manitoba, Brandon University and the University College of the North. The province’s chief electoral officer also sits on the commission.

In past commissions, there were only three commissioners, but with the inclusion of the rural presidents, a progression has been made towards a more equal representation of the province’s demographics.

Although outside of the commission, commissioners’ jobs may require them to engage in politics, they are not considered to be politically tied, Adams said. The commissioners simply act as a “neutral body,” he said.

“Because they are non-political people ... (and) academics, they are unbiased,” added Mary Scanderbag, operations manager for Elections Manitoba.

The commissions were also created to avoid gerrymandering, a political practice that used to be employed by governments to keep themselves in power, Adams said.

It’s an ancient practice that won’t have a role in the Oct. 4 election, Conservatives say.

“I don’t think there are any possible reasons to believe that gerrymandering is going on,” said Myrna Driedger, the PC MLA for Charleswood.

While new divisions are being added in the city, ridings in rural Manitoba are being removed or combined.

The Minnedosa-Russell division has become Riding Mountain, which Adams sees as “the decline of the rural population and the increase of the urban population.”

Published in Volume 66, Number 2 of The Uniter (September 8, 2011)