Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows residents will return to the polls on April 28 for a federal election with a new-look to their riding.
New Prime Minister Mark Carney asked the Governor General to dissolve parliament on Sunday (March 23), prompting a federal election later this spring.
Now, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows residents, as well as Mission voters west of Wren Street and north of Richards Avenue will be casting ballots for the same group of political candidates.
Conservative and NDP candidates have been confirmed in the riding, while Liberal and Green hopefuls have yet to be announced.
In Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge, Conservative incumbent Marc Dalton will run for re-election against NDP Daniel Heydenrych.
Dalton was first elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2021. He served in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves and has a background as a teacher, pastor and volunteer with local food banks and the Salvation Army. Dalton won in 2021 with 36.7 per cent of the vote over NDP Phil Klapwyk (31.9 per cent) and Liberal Ahmed Yousef (24.9 per cent).
RECOLLECTION: Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP gets sworn in
Heydenrych grew up in South Africa and moved to B.C. in 2014. He also served in the military and was deployed on a UN peacekeeping mission to Cyprus with the British Army. He has worked for government and non-government relief programs in Africa and Asia.
READ: NDP announce candidate for Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge riding
The federal electoral district of Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge has changed a little bit since the last election.
The proposed “dog’s breakfast” riding of Pitt Meadows-Fort Langley, which was presented by Elections Canada a few years ago, would have combined parts of those cities with pieces from three others. But it has been scuttled.
The former riding of Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge took in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, bordered by the Pitt and Fraser Rivers, and 288th Street in the east. It is a huge geographic riding for the region, stretching north to Garibaldi Provincial Park.
A few years back, the electoral boundaries commission moved the eastern boundary further east, taking in significant parts of Mission.
Where the former riding boundary stops before Rolley Lake Provincial Park, and Lake Silvermere, during a redistribution process that ended in September 2023 it was determined the new boundary would go well past that border.
It now takes in Silvermere Lake, Silverdale, and continue all the way to Wren Street – taking in the Mission RCMP and Walmart store. Further north, the new riding also include half of the Stave Lake and the Steelhead rural area of Mission.
The electoral boundaries were re-drawn due to population changes, to create ridings mostly equal in population. The commission was aiming for 116,300 per riding.
Voters can find out information about the new riding boundaries by visiting www.elections.ca/scripts/vis/FindED.
