On Monday Quebec’s federal electoral boundaries commission released the proposed changes that would add three new seats to the province, change the boundaries and rename 53 of the province’s 75 existing ridings. The proposed redistribution would have a significant impact on Montreal ridings, where two new seats would be added in the city’s northern rim, with an additional seat added to the city’s southern rim.
“Adding an electoral district in a given region creates a domino effect that might entail major or minor changes to the boundaries of a substantial number of other districts,” acknowledges the report, authored by the commission chair Justice Jules Allard, and the commission’s two other members, Raymond Hudon and Michel Doyon.
Few of city’s districts were spared in the proposed realignment, although the Montreal ridings of NDP leader Tom Mulcair (Outremont, Que.), and Liberal MPs Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) and Denis Coderre (Bourassa, Que.) all retain their shape and name in the commission's report.
The same cannot be said for Liberal Democratic Reform critic Stéphane Dion’s (Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, Que.) riding. The proposed changes would see parts of Saint-Laurent-Cartierville divided between three newly-named ridings of MacDonald-Langstaff, George-Etienne-Cartier, and John-Peters-Humphrey. Mr. Dion said he is not impressed.
“What they are proposing is completely arbitrary and nobody will understand if they are in this new riding or not,” Mr. Dion said in an interview with The Hill Timeson Wednesday. “It will have part of Cartierville, but not all of it. Part of St. Laurent, but not all of it. A bit of Dorval, a bit of Pierrefonds-Dollard.”
Mr. Dion, who has represented the riding since 1996 and who won the last election with 43.4 per cent of the vote, said he takes particular issue with the commission’s attempt to limit riding population size to within 10 per cent of the established electoral quota of 101,321 residents to a riding. Under Section 15(2) of the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, a commission is required to keep the size of a riding to within 25 per cent of the electoral quota. Electoral boundaries commissions can consider existing communities, history, and geographic size in establishing new ridings that deviate from the electoral quota—a consideration Mr. Dion said needs to be made in the case of his riding.
“Where does the 10 per cent come from, if the legislation says 25 per cent,” he observed. “If they think the law is unfair they can comment on that, but they cannot change the law at this point.”
Mr. Dion and fellow Montreal Liberal Irwin Cotler (Mount Royal, Que.) both successfully challenged proposed amendments to their ridings when changes were last proposed in 2003. Mr. Cotler, whose riding would give up some territory to Outremont and a new riding of Wilder-Penfield, extend westward, and be renamed John-Peters-Humphrey, has already criticized the commission's work. Mr. Cotler has represented the riding since 1999 and won the last election with 41.4 per cent of the vote.
“The proposed changes seem to reflect a lack of awareness, if not disregard, for the riding’s history, its physical integrity and community identity,” Mr. Cotler told the Montreal Gazetteearlier this week.
Both Mr. Dion and Mr. Cotler intend to challenge the proposed changes at public hearings scheduled between Sept. 5 and Nov. 6 of this fall.
“They don’t justify their decision. In 2002, the same thing happened with the same interventions by Mr. Cotler and myself,” said Mr. Dion. “I will take the report I tabled in 2002, I will make some changes and I will come with the same arguments.”
However, Mr. Dion was clear that he did not think the commission’s report was politically motivated.
“A judge would not compromise himself with political interference, I’m sure of that,” Mr. Dion said, referring Justice Allard, the committee’s chair.
Other Quebec MPs are also considering challenging proposed changes to their own ridings.
Liberal House Leader Marc Garneau’s (Westmount-Ville-Marie, Que.) riding could be expanded to include part of the neighbouring Jeanne-Le Ber riding, creating a new riding of Ville-Marie under the proposed changes.
Roch Gamache, Mr. Garneau’s director of communications, said that the MP and party were still in the process of analysing the proposal. Mr. Garneau has represented the riding since 2008 and won the last election with 37.2 per cent of the vote.
NDP MP Jamie Nicholls (Vaudreuil‒Soulanges, Que.), whose suburban riding west of Montreal Island would be split between redrawn ridings of Vaudreuil and Soulanges under the proposal, said that Quebec New Democrats were still assessing the commission’s report.
“I haven’t consulted yet with my constituents, but I intend to do so to find out what they think about the new boundaries,” Mr. Nicholls said, who was first elected to the House in the last election with 43.6 per cent of the vote.
Conservative MP Jacques Gourde (Lotbinière-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, Que.), who won the last election with 39.9 per cent of the vote in the last election and who has represented the riding since 2006, told The Hill Timesthat he was “surprised” to see the commission split his riding in two in its report, and is encouraging residents in his riding to participate in the commission’s public hearings or contact the commissioner in writing.
Under the recently-amended seat distribution formula, the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta will receive six seats, Ontario will receive 15 seats, and Quebec will receive three seats, increasing the total number of seats in the House of Commons from 308 to 338 before the next federal election, which is tentatively scheduled for October, 2015.
Federal electoral boundaries are reassessed every 10 years based on decennial census numbers. Boundaries commissions for British Columbia and Alberta have already released proposals increasing the number of seats in urban centres and adjusting other ridings throughout each province to better reflect population distribution. Federal electoral boundaries commissions for Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have also released reports that propose ridings changes, but no additional seats. Commissions for Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island have yet to release their proposed changes.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Chris Plecash
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