New LFK Riding Expected To Replace LFL&A

Jeff Green | Sep 25, 2013

Scott Reid, who is likely to be the only person to ever serve as MP for the Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington riding, appeared before Frontenac County Council last week with an update on the riding redistribution process and its impact in the region.

“I had expected the riding redistribution process to be complete by now,” Reid said, “but while the final boundaries have been announced across the country, that has not been done for Ontario.”

Reid explained that one of the issues still to be finalized in Ontario involves the changes to his own riding.

His expectation is, however, that the entirety of Lanark County, as well as most of Frontenac County (the exception being Howe and Wolfe Islands) will make up the bulk of the riding. What is up in the air is if and how far the new riding will extend into rural Kingston.

The boundary commission has proposed extending the riding south into Kingston as far as Highway 401, but Reid, after consulting local Kingston politicians, has proposed extending the riding further, so that it will encompass the entire former Pittsburgh township, which was part of Frontenac County until 1998, but is now included in the amalgamated City of Kingston. The proposed boundary would be the 401 at the southwestern edge of the riding, but to the west, the Cataraqui river would form the boundary until it spills into the St. Lawrence river.

Reid's proposal is countered by Kingston and the Islands MP Ted Hsu, who is urging the commission to keep the existing Kingston and the Islands riding, which includes the former Pittsburgh township, intact.

The problem with that, according to Reid, is that it would give Kingston and the Islands a population of 125,227 (17.9% above the commission’s target population per riding of about 108,000 people) and Kingston Frontenac a population of 90,178 – 15.1% lower than the target)

Reid has proposed calling the new riding Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, which has the advantage of being easier to pronounce than the current riding name, Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington.