Elections Canada recently completed its regular 10-year review of electoral boundaries, increasing the number of electoral districts in Canada from 301 to 308. Among the changes was the division of the Lanark-Carleton electoral district, originally formed in 1988, into two new ridings: Carleton-Lanark and Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington.
Effective September 1, 2004, Carleton-Lanark was renamed Carleton-Mississippi Mills.
Carleton-Mississippi Mills encompasses Goulbourn, Kanata, West Carleton and the Mississippi Mills portion of Lanark County.
The ‘Carleton’ Connection
Goulbourn, Kanata and West Carleton were once part of the historic Carleton County, which was originally formed in 1798. The County was named in honour of Sir Guy Carleton, an influential military and administrative figure in Canada’s formative years. The Ontario government dissolved Carleton County in 1969 and replaced it with the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton.
Prior to January 1, 2001, Goulbourn, Kanata and West Carleton were distinct and separate municipalities within the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton. In 2001, the Provincial government amalgamated all the municipalities of Ottawa-Carleton into a single City of Ottawa, leaving Goulbourn, Kanata and West Carleton as wards in the new city.
The inclusion of ‘Carleton’ in the new riding name ensures the preservation of the historic name at a time when the name and its significance are fading from memory.
‘Mississippi Mills’
Mississippi Mills lies within the historic Lanark County, and is also a recent product of restructuring by the Provincial government. On January 1, 1998, the Town of Mississippi Mills was created by merging the Town of Almonte with the former Townships of Ramsay and Pakenham.
‘Mississippi’ is the name of the river running through the area, and ‘mills’ is a reference to the numerous mills that once were critical to the economic life of the community.
Demographics
Carleton-Mississippi Mills has a population of about 127,000 people and is a complex mix of farms, estate developments, hamlets, villages, towns and suburban development. There are over 43, 500 households.
Although most of the riding’s 1,619 km2 land area is rural, about 55 percent of the population lives in Kanata. Kanata includes a number of high technology firms, Scotiabank Place – home of the Ottawa Senators – and the area’s main shopping hub, the Centrum.
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