Legislature House of Commons First contested 1872 District abolished 1979 | District created 1871 Last contested 1974 | |
New Westminster was a federal electoral district in the province of British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1871 to 1979.
This riding was created in 1871 as New Westminster District when British Columbia joined Confederation and filled by special byelection. It was renamed "New Westminster" in 1872. The riding was abolished in 1976, when it was redistributed into the ridings of New Westminster—Coquitlam and Burnaby.
History of boundaries
Originally, this riding covered the entirety of the Lower Mainland, there being no other riding in the area (Vancouver riding was Vancouver Island, not the present city of Vancouver). Once the City of Vancouver and its suburbs the municipalities of Point Grey and South Vancouver were chartered, those areas were excluded from the New Westminster riding (1903) but the riding continued to include Richmond, Delta and all the Fraser Valley communities up the river to one mile beyond Yale. In 1914, the riding consisted or New Westminster, Richmond and Delta - the Surrey-Langley area had become part of the Fraser Valley riding. In a further redistribution in 1924, the riding was shrunk to all areas south of the Fraser River west of and including the Township of Langley, plus the city of New Westminster and the City of Burnaby. As population in the Lower Mainland continued to grow, the 1933 redistribution limited the riding to New Westminster and Burnaby, except those parts of Burnaby in extensions of the City of Vancouver ridings. In 1947, Burnaby was split off and New Westminster riding had Surrey, Delta and Langley back in (but not Richmond).
The 1966 redistribution, which combined northern Burnaby into North Vancouver-Seymour, New Westminster riding extended as far into Burnaby as Grandview Highway and Edmonds Avenue, including Burnaby Mountain and the areas of Coquitlam west of Laurentian Avenue. At the time this included the then-municipality of Fraser Mills adjoining the francophone community at Maillardville. Langley, Surrey and Delta were excluded from the riding.
The riding was abolished in 1976. Successor ridings were Burnaby and New Westminster—Coquitlam.