B.C. to get 6 new federal ridings

B.C. will get six new seats in the next federal election because of its growing population, raising thetotal number of electoral districts in the province from 36 to 42.

Five of the new seats will be in Lower Mainland, where nearlytwo thirdsof the existing electoral districts are already located, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for B.C. announced on Monday.

The sixth seat will be added on Vancouver Island.

The redrawing offederal ridings usually happen about once a decade after a census. The goal is to make theridings roughly the same size by population, withabout 100,000 people in each.