Boundary-Similkameen is a provincial riding formed in 2008. It includes the populations of

Penticton-Okanagan Valley Penticton is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, established by the '' Electoral Districts Act, 2008''. Previously the district was named Penticton-Okanagan Valley from 2001 to 2009 and Okanagan-Penticton from 1991 to 20 ...

West Kootenay-Boundary West Kootenay-Boundary was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada from 2001 to 2009. The seat combined the Rossland/Trail/Castlegar area (the putative ''West Kootenay'' component) that had prev ...

and

Yale-Lillooet Yale-Lillooet was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It first appeared in the 1966 General Election, when it superseded the older Lillooet riding, which was one of the province's original ...

. The riding's name corresponds to that of a former riding in the same area, with similar but not identical boundaries (see History section).

Geography

As of the 2020 provincial election, Boundary-Similkameen comprises the western portion of the

Regional District of Kootenay Boundary The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) is one of 28 regional districts in the province of British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2016 Canadian census, the population was 31,447. The area is 8,095.62 km2 (3,125.74 sq mi). The RDKB ...

and the

Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) is in southern British Columbia, adjacent to the U.S. state of Washington. It is bounded by Fraser Valley Regional District to the west, Thompson-Nicola Regional District and Regional District ...

, minus the northeastern portion which is part of the Penticton Electoral District. It is located in southern British Columbia and is bordered by Washington, United States to the south. Communities in the electoral district consist of

Osoyoos Osoyoos (, ) is the southernmost town in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia between Penticton and Omak. The town is north of the United States border with Washington state and is adjacent to the Osoyoos Indian reserve. The origin of the na ...

, Oliver,

Grand Forks Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, and

Keremeos Keremeos () is a village in the British Columbia Interior, Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The name originated from the Similkameen dialect of the Okanagan language word "Keremeyeus" meaning "creek which cuts its way through the fl ...

Member of Legislative Assembly

Due to the realignment of electoral boundaries, most incumbents did not represent the entirety of their listed district during the preceding legislative term.

Bill Barisoff Bill Barisoff is a former BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. Born in Oliver, he was an MLA from 1996 until 2013, representing the districts of Okanagan-Boundary, Penticton-Okanagan Valle ...

British Columbia Liberal Party The British Columbia Liberal Party, often shortened to the BC Liberals, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition. Subsequent to the 2020 Br ...

was initially elected during the 2005 election and 2001 election to the

riding, where the bulk of the new riding's population resides.

Katrine Conroy Katrine Conroy (' Thor-Larsen; born 1957 or 1958) is a Canadian politician who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2005 provincial election. She represents the electoral district of Kootenay West as a member of t ...

, NDP. was the MLA for

, while

Harry Lali Harbhajan Singh "Harry" Lali (born August 10, 1955) is a former MLA in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Biography Lali spent eleven summers working in the forestry industry, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Sout ...

, NDP, was the MLA for

(the areas of those ridings added to Boundary-Similkameen are less-populated and were not main population centres in their ridings).

History

The original riding of Boundary-Similkameen was a provincial

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. It spanned the

Boundary Country The Boundary Country is a historical designation for a district in southern British Columbia lying, as its name suggests, along the boundary between Canada and the United States. It lies to the east of the southern Okanagan Valley and to the west o ...

, around the towns of

and Rock Creek west including Oliver and

to the

Similkameen Valley Similkameen may refer to: * Similkameen Country or Similkameen District, or "the Similkameen", a historical georegion in British Columbia, Canada * Similkameen River, a river that runs through southern British Columbia, discharging into the Okanog ...

towns of

and

. The riding first appeared in the 1966 election as the result of a merger of the former ridings of

Grand Forks-Greenwood Grand Forks-Greenwood was the name of a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia centred on the town of Grand Forks, in the Boundary Country between the Okanagan and Kootenay Countries. The riding first appeared i ...

(1924–1963) and Similkameen. Until the re-creation of Boundary-Similkameen, the former area was part of

; areas in the Similkameen had been part of

(which has been reconstituted as

Fraser-Nicola Fraser-Nicola is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, established by the '' Electoral Districts Act, 2008''. It was first contested in the 2009 general election. Geography As of the 2020 provincial election, Fraser-Nicol ...

). For other historical and current ridings in the region, see

Kootenay (electoral districts) {{short description, None Kootenay is a name found in various provincial and federal electoral districts in the Canadian province of British Columbia. This page lists ridings with the name Kootenay in them, and also other ridings within the Koote ...

and

Okanagan (electoral districts) {{short description, None This article lists Canadian federal and provincial electoral districts with the name Okanagan, or in the Okanagan region. Current federal electoral districts * Okanagan—Shuswap (2004 - ) * Okanagan—Coquihalla (1996 ...

Demographics

Electoral history

, align="right", $99,832 ,

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National ...

, Lakhvinder Jhaj , align="right", 5,870 , align="right", 32.91% , align="right", -7.89 , align="right", $52,629 , - , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 29,868 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 218 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=7, ² Seat increased to two members from one. The 1988 byelection, which elected NDP member

Bill Barlee Neville Langrell "Bill" Barlee (October 15, 1932 – June 14, 2012) was a Canadian politician who was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia as a New Democrat in 1988. He served as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries a ...

, was the last appearance of the Boundary-Similkameen riding until its recreation in 2009. For the 1991 election, the area became represented by

Okanagan-Boundary Okanagan-Boundary was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia spanning the area from the Similkameen towns of Kaleden and Keremeos to Grand Forks and Christina Lake, and including the southern Okanagan towns o ...

. , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 60,693 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 758 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=7, ² Seat increased to two members from one. , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 34,423 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 312 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right", , Progressive Conservative , John Edwin Swales , align="right", 3,662 , align="right", 12.68% , align="right", , align="right", unknown , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 28,886 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 324 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right", , Progressive Conservative , Barry Donald Montgomery , align="right", 1,778 , align="right", 7.96% , align="right", , align="right", unknown , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 22,325 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 161 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right", , Progressive Conservative , Donald James Ewart , align="right", 1,550 , align="right", 8.45% , align="right", , align="right", unknown , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 18,347 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 122 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 16,476 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 122 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 11,810 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 87 !align="right", !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", % !align="right", !align="right",

References

Elections BC Historical Returns
{{British Columbia provincial electoral districts 1966–1979 British Columbia provincial electoral districts