Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies
The name is a mouthful, but it's probably only right that such a large riding (243,588 square kilometres with just 107,380 residents) has such a long title.
Stretching from Valemount, all the way up the province's eastern border past Peace River and the Northern Rockies to the Yukon and N.W.T. border and to points west just shy of the Skeena River, the riding is geographically B.C.'s second largest (behind Skeena-Bulkley Valley, which is more than 322,000 square kilometres).
The riding cuts through Prince George from the intersection of the Nechako River and Highway 97, down to Massey Drive, along towards Winnipeg Street to 15th Avenue, south from Queensway to Patricia Boulevard until it connects with the Fraser River.
Thanks to the last set of electoral boundary shifting completed in 2013, residents of Valemount will also get to add their votes in this riding.
But Valemount residents weren't happy about it.
When the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission panel came around collecting feedback on their proposals for the new borders given the addition of six new seats in B.C. to the House of Commons, village representatives made their complaints known.
Valemount wanted to stay as part of the Kootenay-Columbia riding, arguing it had more in common with the tourism-based communities.
Commission chair, Court of Appeals Justice John Hall, questioned the ease of access for a federal representative to travel between the Kootenays and Valemount.
"As I looked at all these maps, it seemed to me not readily apparent how an MP from the Kootenay boundary would have ready access [to Valemount]," he said, during a September 2012 public hearing.
Regional District of Fraser-Fort George chair Art Kaehn, speaking in support of Valemount's argument, agreed but said the North Central Local Government Association was backing Valemount on the tourism aspect.
"I realize there are challenges," he said, but added an MP travelling within the Prince George-Peace River riding would also have a long way to go.
Regardless of its size and new communities, first-term MP Bob Zimmer is looking to retain the Conservative hold over the riding that stretches back decades.
Zimmer successfully (he had 62 per cent of the vote) took over from retiring Conservative MP Jay Hill in 2011, who was first elected as a Reform candidate in 1993.
Before Hill, there was Progressive Conservative Frank Oberle, who weathered two elections in quick succession as the Liberal party moved from minority status in 1972 to majority in 1974.
The last time a Liberal candidate was elected in the region was Bob Borrie in 1968, who was preceded by 15 years of P.C. and Social Credit MPs.
Cariboo-Prince George
The neighbouring Cariboo-Prince George riding has a similar history of right-wing representation.
The 86,993 square km riding and its 108,250 residents was most recently held by retiring Conservative MP Dick Harris.
It includes the remaining portions of the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George to the southwest of the Nechako River and east of the Fraser, as well as Vanderhoof, Williams Lake and Quesnel, stretching nearly to Squamish-Lillooet.
As it now exists, the riding was first established in 2004, created from parts of the now-defunct Prince George-Bulkley Valley and Cariboo-Chilcotin districts.
Both ridings were dominated by right-wing representation from 1979 until 2004, with the exception of the four years that the NDP's Brian Gardiner took over in Prince George-Bulkley Valley between 1988 and 1993.
Harris, running as a Reform candidate, beat the incumbent in 1993 with 40 per cent of the vote to Gardiner's 23 per cent.
Like its neighbour, the riding has its own history of not being happy with proposed border changes.
Cariboo-Prince George was created when electoral boundary lines were redrawn prior to the 2004 election, and in doing so the area lost a seat to accommodate creating a space in Burnaby.
Losing the Cariboo-Chilcotin riding separated Quesnel (sent to Prince George-Bulkley Valley), Williams Lake (dispatched to Skeena-Chilcotin), 100 Mile House (off to Cariboo-Kamloops) and Cache Creek and Ashcroft (sent to Okanagan-Coquihalla), leaving some to lament a fracturing of Highway 97-linked communities.
"This is awful," Quesnel Mayor Steve Wallace told The Citizen in 2002. "We've always maintained the Cariboo as a unit."
The new boundaries also played a role in Harris nearly losing his seat. A 2004 nomination battle against Williams Lake dentist Elmer Thiessen became ugly and led to a do-over vote after Harris lost the original tally by three votes to represent the new riding.
