Kamloops Shuswap Central Rockies (image credit - Elections Canada)

By Michael Reeve

CANADA VOTES 2025

April’s election the first with two separate Kamloops ridings in play

Mar 26, 2025 | 4:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — This will be the first federal election held since riding boundaries were changed in 2023, splitting Kamloops in two. That leaves residents voting in either Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola or Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies on April 28.

Every 10 years, the federal boundaries must be reviewed, with the population of British Columbia increasing enough since the last period to require the addition of one new member of parliament, taking total representation of the province from 42 to 43 members. Those changes led to the split of the Kamloops municipality into two distinct ridings.

Federal ridings are based of a number of factors — chief among them population, with each district having an average of 116,000 people. For the 2022 boundary commission, it was the Kamloops area that provided the most challenge as they re-drew the map.

“The most challenging area for reconfiguration in the Southern Interior is the City of Kamloops and its large trading and service area. The population in that circle significantly exceeds the province’s electoral quota, but falls short of the population that would support two electoral districts. The Commission concluded that this divergence from quota needs to be addressed and that the population of the city must be spread into two electoral districts, with each part joining an extended community of smaller populations,” read an excerpt from the 2023 February report from the Commission.

Two and Out

PETERS: It's a single-issue election, just like those during wartime

Mar 28, 2025

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: March 27, 2025

Mar 27, 2025

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Let's call a spade a spade

Mar 27, 2025

“I think we might see a modest difference in voting numbers but I still think Conservatives are fairly safe in both local ridings. But stranger things have happened,” said TRU Political Science Associate Professor Robert Hanlon.

The new boundary snakes it’s way down Highway 5A, but the most important delineating mark for residents to understand will be Sixth Avenue in downtown Kamloops. Those to the east of Sixth will be in Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies, held by incumbent Mel Arnold. Those to the west will remain in Frank Caputo’s riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola.

“The longer term trajectory as population continues to grow and we know urban populations are more centre — especially in Kamloops — may tend to vote more centre-left as opposed to centre-right. We are seeing a change in the region and time will tell how that will play out,” said Hanlon.

Outlying communities were also shuffled into new homes, with communities like Clearwater, Barriere and Blue River to the north, Cache Creek and Ashcroft to the west, and Merritt and Lytton to the south joining Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola.

Those east of Sixth Avenue in Kamloops join with Armstrong, Salmon Arm, Revelstoke and even Golden, with the riding stretching all the way to the Alberta border.