122 FEISTY ARGUMENTS — Ontario's federal riding redistribution commission slipped its proposal onto the internet on Friday. And it's a doozy. Few corners of the province escaped substantial boundary changes. Some of them could conceivably swing an election. Also, Toronto lost a riding even as Ontario gained a seat in the overall count. Buckle up. We've got the highlights. — The search for red flags: Canada's once-a-decade exercise in political cartography attempts to achieve roughly equal representation for citizens in each province. Today we're zeroing in on Ontario, but every other province has rolled out its proposals. ( Here's our look at New Brunswick in June.) It doesn't suffer from the intense gerrymandering commonplace south of the border. But ask an MP about a substantial redraw and they'll privately, and sometimes publicly, vent opinions about what a handful of unelected commissioners have to say. — Who did the drawing: The thankless task of pissing people off fell to three people: LYNNE LEITCH, a Superior Court justice from London who chairs the commission. The other members are KAREN BIRD, a poli-sci prof at McMaster University in Hamilton, and PETER LOEWEN, the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. But it's not just the elected people who have skin in the game. Party activists read the fine print. Municipalities want to ensure maximum representation (see: Fredericton city council, which wants a riding all to itself ). Community associations don't want to see neighborhoods split between MPs. Public hearings can get feisty. This process won't be finalized until at least April 2024. Which means politicos have plenty of time to ask key questions: Do the new boundaries divide communities in confusing ways? Do the proposed names make any sense? Most importantly for political parties who will pore over last election's poll-by-poll results: Where are they newly vulnerable? Where can they pick up seats? 10 TRENDS TO WATCH — Throw a dart at the redraw and you'll find a talker of a tweak — or overhaul — to a boundary or a name. Here's what jumped out at Playbook. — Toronto loses a seat: The country's biggest city would drop to 24 MPs from 25, a reduction that might satisfy non-Torontonians — but has fired up MPs in the city. JOHN MCKAY, the 25-year rep of Scarborough–Guildwood, called the new map "outrageous" in a conversation with the Toronto Star. But it's trends in McKay's neck of woods that the commission is trying to solve for in its redraw. The suburb of Scarborough — bias alert: your Playbook host hails from the veteran Liberal's district — is shrinking in places. The burb's overall population ticked up to 629,941 from 625,698, but that growth was uneven. Half of the six ridings in the Scarborough region saw population drops between census counts, and all six have fallen below the per-riding population "quota" of 116,590 that guided redistribution. Eighteen of 25 ridings across the 416 also fell beneath that quota. — Elsewhere in the city: Changes are coming to the Beaches–East York riding held by Liberal MP NATHANIEL ERSKINE-SMITH, the chair of the party's Toronto caucus. The commissioners propose a new name, The Beaches–East York, which further entrenches the federal position on an eternal debate in east-end Toronto: Is it The Beaches or The Beach? Voters might also say goodbye to Toronto–St. Paul's, a riding name that dates back 89 years, in favor of the proposed St. Clair–Mount Pleasant. And Parkdale–High Park becomes Taiaiako'n–High Park, in honor of an ancient Mohawk-Seneca village. — A shift for Windsor: The sprawling Chrysler assembly plant in the gritty border town will no longer fall in the riding repped for 20 years by NDP MP BRIAN MASSE (a former Chrysler employee). Windsor–Tecumseh's gain is Windsor–West's loss, and it's not symbolic. The union-heavy polls near that plant have leaned heavily to the NDP. — Lakeshore politics: The current map includes Etobicoke–Lakeshore and Mississauga–Lakeshore. The proposed map adds the L-word to three more ridings along Lake Ontario in Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton. Snark ensued. — How it might change the House: One poll-by-poll geek took a stab at transposing the 2021 results onto the new electoral map. He notes a handful of potential battles to watch. — What comes next: Public participation. The commission has scheduled a mix of virtual and in-person hearings. Sparks could fly at the Scarborough Civic Center on Oct. 18 at 6:30. What do you love about the proposed boundaries? What do you absolutely hate? Which riding rejig would be most consequential on Election Day? Tell us everything . WHO IS DAVID COHEN? — POLITICO's ANDY BLATCHFORD has spent months watching the U.S. ambo as he settles into life as JOE BIDEN's man at Lornado, the luxurious Rockcliffe residence for the ambassador with a prime view of the Ottawa River. Blatchford's new profile of Cohen traces his journey to Ottawa from his earliest days as chief of staff to then-Philadelphia mayor ED RENDELL, when the duo was on a mission in the 1990s to save the city from bankruptcy. At the time, Cohen and Rendell were followed closely by Philly investigative journalist BUZZ BISSINGER , whose "A Prayer for the City" insider look at city hall described the chief of staff at times as a "bloodless prick," "head henchman," and "boy wonder." Blatchford caught up with Rendell and a cast of characters who've watched Cohen through the years — including Canadians who are getting to know America's top envoy. Here's some of what he learned. — He's a reader: As Rendell's right hand, Cohen took meetings with city commissioners in a bid to balance the books. “Commissioners learned very quickly that they couldn't shuck and jive David,” Rendell told Blatchford. “David read all their material, all their reports, all their data and he knew them as well as they did going in… That made him respected and admired by the staff. Also a little bit feared — but feared in a good way.” If you're a Canadian who hopes to persuade the ambo, are you taking notes? — Cohen doesn't like to talk about Cohen: “I’m very happy talking about the president, talking about the prime minister, talking about policy issues,” he told Blatchford. “But I'm not in this job, I haven’t been in any of my jobs, to talk about me.” — A common question: “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked the question, on or off the record, of — just where does Canada stand with the United States?” Read the full story here, where Cohen answers that very question (and much, much more).
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