Ridings

How many countries in the world label their electoral districts as “ridings”? Actually, just one. Canada. We are unique in the world using the expression, notwithstanding it is an ancient English term. The Brits don’t use it, nor do the Aussies, the Americans, or the Kiwis. Just us.

The term “riding” meaning an electoral district goes far back in English history, although it has fallen out of use in that country. And as with all things concerning the English language and English history, it’s not going to be a simple explanation.

We all recall that at an important stage in English history, the Danes ruled the northern part of the country, particularly Yorkshire (“York” derives from the Danish name “Jorvik”) and Danish had a powerful effect on the English language and many English administrative practices. Among them were ridings.

Because English counties tended to be larger than what the Danes were used to, they divided them into three, each third being called a þriðjungr, pronounced more or less as “thrithyungr”. Over time, with the twists and turns of language, this became anglicised as “the riding”, and the name for an administrative district came into our language. This transition had settled in at roughly the time that Canada was being colonized, and the term became common in our group of colonies, establishing itself into our political vocabulary.

Language and customs are funny things. Here’s a term which we as Canadians assume that everyone in the world uses and understands, but one quickly discovers that even our English speaking cousins stare at us with incomprehension. They have no idea what we’re talking about.

One of the essentials of effective communication is that the speaker and the listener speak the same language and understand the same vocabulary. Far too many platform speakers, essayists, and business writers simply assume that the recipient uses the same language with the same nuances as does the speaker.

Which is natural enough, just as it is natural for Canadians to assume that everybody in the world knows what we’re talking about when we use the expression “riding”. Natural, but wrong.