North Island—Powell River

North Island—Powell River is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1997, and again since 2015. This riding was created in 1987 from parts of Comox—Powell River riding and contested for the first time at the 34th federal election on 21 November 1988. It was abolished in 1996 when it was merged into Vancouver Island North riding, and it ceased to be represented in the House of Commons effective at the call of the 36th federal election on 2 June 1997.

North Island—Powell River

British Columbia electoral district
North Island—Powell River in relation to other electoral districts in the Vancouver Island area
Federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
MP	Rachel Blaney New Democratic
District created	2013
First contested	2015
Last contested	2021
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2011)[1]	103,458
Electors (2015)	79,517
Area (km²)[2]	57,911
Pop. density (per km²)	1.8
Census division(s)	Comox Valley, Mount Waddington, qathet, Strathcona
Census subdivision(s)	Campbell River, Comox, Powell River, Gold River, Port Hardy, Port McNeill, Port Alice, Alert Bay, Sayward, Comox Valley B, Comox Valley C, Strathcona C, Strathcona D

The riding consisted of the southern part of Kitimat-Stikine Regional District, the Central Coast Regional District, the Mount Waddington Regional District, the northwest part of the Comox-Strathcona Regional District, the Sunshine Coast Regional District, and the Powell River Regional District, except Electoral Area E.

North Island—Powell River was re-created (initially called Vancouver Island North—Comox—Powell River) by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was legally defined in the 2013 representation order. It came into effect upon the call of the 42nd Canadian federal election, which was held 19 October 2015.^[3][4]

Demographics

Panethnic groups in North Island—Powell River (2011−2021)

Panethnic group	2021[5]		2016[6]		2011[7]
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
European[a]	91,320	83.17%	87,400	84.31%	88,465	86.9%
Indigenous	13,400	12.2%	12,475	12.03%	10,560	10.37%
East Asian[b]	1,515	1.38%	1,185	1.14%	575	0.56%
Southeast Asian[c]	1,390	1.27%	1,125	1.09%	985	0.97%
South Asian	920	0.84%	455	0.44%	370	0.36%
African	505	0.46%	430	0.41%	330	0.32%
Latin American	370	0.34%	295	0.28%	300	0.29%
Middle Eastern[d]	80	0.07%	75	0.07%	20	0.02%
Other[e]	300	0.27%	230	0.22%	200	0.2%
Total responses	109,800	98.19%	103,670	98.3%	101,800	98.33%
Total population	111,825	100%	105,466	100%	103,525	100%
Notes: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses. Demographics based on 2012 Canadian federal electoral redistribution riding boundaries.

Members of Parliament

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
North Island—Powell River Riding created from Comox—Powell River
34th	1988–1993		Ray Skelly	New Democratic
35th	1993–1997		John Duncan	Reform
Riding dissolved into Vancouver Island North, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, Skeena and Cariboo—Chilcotin
Riding re-created from Vancouver Island North and West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country
42nd	2015–2019		Rachel Blaney	New Democratic
43rd	2019–2021
44th	2021–present

Electoral history

North Island—Powell River, 2015–present

Graph of election results in North Island—Powell River (since 2015, minor parties that never got 2% of the vote or didn't run consistently are omitted)

v t e 2021 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Rachel Blaney	23,833	39.5	+1.6	$62,260.34
	Conservative	Shelley Downey	21,670	36.0	+3.4	$63,438.47
	Liberal	Jennifer Grenz	7,922	13.1	±0.0	$44,209.34
	Green	Jessica Wegg	3,656	6.1	-8.0	$22,023.44
	People's	Paul Macknight	2,795	4.6	+2.8	$0.00
	Maverick	Stacey Gastis	310	0.5	N/A	$26,200.41
	Marxist–Leninist	Carla Neal	77	0.1	±0.0	$0.00
Total valid votes/Expense limit			60,263	99.3	–	$147,765.33
Total rejected ballots			421	0.7
Turnout			60,684	65.3
Eligible voters			92,814
	New Democratic hold		Swing		-0.9
Source: Elections Canada[8]

2021 federal election redistributed results[9]
Party		Vote	%
	New Democratic	26,918	39.46
	Conservative	24,707	36.22
	Liberal	9,076	13.30
	Green	3,999	5.86
	People's	3,113	4.56
	Others	403	0.59

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Rachel Blaney	23,834	37.9	-2.31	$59,655.63
	Conservative	Shelley Downey	20,502	32.6	+6.43	$49,894.99
	Green	Mark de Bruijn	8,891	14.1	+5.94	$34,354.18
	Liberal	Peter Schwarzhoff	8,251	13.1	-12.37	none listed
	People's	Brian Rundle	1,102	1.8	–	$5,894.54
	Independent	Glen Staples	287	0.5	–	$3,027.54
	Marxist–Leninist	Carla Neal	48	0.1	–	none listed
Total valid votes			62,915	100.00	–
Total rejected ballots			291	–	–
Turnout			63,206	–	–
Eligible voters			89,561
	New Democratic hold		Swing		-4.37
Source: Elections Canada[10]

v t e 2015 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Rachel Blaney	24,340	40.21	-1.53	$139,441.92
	Conservative	Laura Smith	15,840	26.17	-19.86	$83,346.00
	Liberal	Peter Schwarzhoff	15,416	25.47	+19.11	$40,436.14
	Green	Brenda Sayers	4,940	8.16	+3.01	$37,000.01
Total valid votes/expense limit			60,536	99.71		$268,365.27
Total rejected ballots			177	0.29	–
Turnout			60,713	75.21	–
Eligible voters			80,730
	New Democratic notional gain from Conservative		Swing		+9.17
Source: Elections Canada[11][12]

2011 federal election redistributed results[13]
Party		Vote	%
	Conservative	23,425	46.03
	New Democratic	21,239	41.74
	Liberal	3,236	6.36
	Green	2,623	5.15
	Others	367	0.72

North Island—Powell River, 1988–1997

v t e 1993 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	John Duncan	18,255	39.31	+37.63
	Liberal	Al Huddlestan	11,877	25.57	+9.46
	New Democratic	Raymond Skelly	7,794	16.78	−35.24
	Progressive Conservative	Mark von Schellwitz	3,682	7.93	−16.49
	National	Mark A. Grenier	3,408	7.34	–
	Green	Michael Mascall	1,015	2.19	+0.97
	Natural Law	Wayne A. Melvin	254	0.55	–
	Canada Party	James Peter Turner	159	0.34	–
Total valid votes			46,444	100.0
	Reform gain from New Democratic		Swing		+14.08

v t e 1988 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Raymond Skelly	22,179	52.02
	Progressive Conservative	Michel Rabu	10,411	24.42
	Liberal	Allan Warnke	6,867	16.11
	Christian Heritage	John A. Krell	1,521	3.57
	Reform	Dodd W. Pellant	718	1.68
	Green	Michael Conway-Brown	519	1.22
	Rhinoceros	Philip John Hicks	299	0.70
	Communist	Nickolas Chernoff	121	0.28
Total valid votes			42,635	100.00
This riding was created from Comox—Powell River, and New Democrat Ray Skelly was the incumbent.

See also

• List of Canadian electoral districts
• Historical federal electoral districts of Canada

Notes

1. Statistic includes all persons that did not make up part of a visible minority or an indigenous identity.
2. Statistic includes total responses of "Chinese", "Korean", and "Japanese" under visible minority section on census.
3. Statistic includes total responses of "Filipino" and "Southeast Asian" under visible minority section on census.
4. Statistic includes total responses of "West Asian" and "Arab" under visible minority section on census.
5. Statistic includes total responses of "Visible minority, n.i.e." and "Multiple visible minorities" under visible minority section on census.