The British Columbia Federal Electoral Boundary Commission has proposed a new riding in the middle of the city of Vancouver, which has a domino effect on surrounding ridings.
Liberal MP Hedy Fry, who represents Vancouver Centre, and NDP MP Libby Davies, who represents Vancouver East, said their ridings are affected and both are worried that the new boundaries split two communities in half which shouldn’t be.
“What concerns me a little bit is the way the shift has occurred,” Ms. Fry told The Hill Times last week, noting a portion of her riding in the south has been cut off where it doesn’t make sense. She said the streets from Sixth Avenue to Sixteenth Avenue have more in common with Vancouver Centre rather than the proposed new riding called Vancouver Granville. Ms. Fry, first elected in 1993, won her seat with 31 per cent of the vote in last year’s election.
“It’s small business, arts communities, arts galleries, and a lot of seniors who live in the proposed new riding who need services in the now cut-off riding,” Ms. Fry said. “So I had a lot of community and arts groups coming in and asking me, ‘Can you go tell them, we’re prepared to take a chop on the east if you will give us that extension back to where we used to be in the south?’ So we’re presenting on that, and we’ll see what they say.”
In Ms. Davies’ case, she said the community of Mount Pleasant in her Vancouver East riding is cut in two when it doesn’t need to be. She said the commission used one of two major streets to divide the community so that the population’s riding would be consistent with the other British Columbia ridings; however, Ms. Davies said even though the population would increase, the community should stay together. She presented her view along with others in the community and said she is hopeful the commission will listen. Ms. Davies, who was first elected in 1997, won her riding in the last election 62.8 per cent of the vote.
“It was really about the community and the need to ensure the community, this old historic neighbourhood called Mount Pleasant was not basically split down the middle,” Ms. Davies told The Hill Times, noting business people, community centre associations and a local filmmaker who created a video to present to the commission, spoke out against the changed boundary.
“It’s a very historic neighbourhood that has a lot of artists in it. It’s very low-income. It’s a neighbourhood where there are a lot of young families. We had a petition saying ‘Keep Main Street in East Van.’ The idea that Main Street would be part of the new riding called Vancouver Granville which includes very middle class, upper middle class, very affluent areas in the centre of Vancouver called Shaughnessy, to think that the East neighbourhood belonged with this west side just didn’t cut it,” said Ms. Davies. “So people really spoke out loud and clear. So we’ll wait and see what they do, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed and I’m hopeful they heard the message. We presented them with logical rational arguments and a proposal so it’s not like we were just complaining.”
Parliament passed Bill C-20 in December 2011. The legislation, the Democratic Representation Act, creates a new formula to readjust the riding boundaries after every 10-year census. The last change was made in 2004 after the 2001 census was released. Under Bill C-20, the House of Commons will have 30 new seats in the next Parliament, increasing the House from 308 to 338.
British Columbia, whose boundary commission released its proposed new boundaries on July 3, will get six new seats to the province’s current 36 seats. Alberta, which currently has 28 seats, will also receive six new seats.
Ontario, with 106 seats, will receive an extra 15 seats, and Quebec, with 75 seats, will get an additional three seats.
Ridings are adjusted to reflect population changes, but boundary commissions must also look at other criterion such as “communities of interest of identity, for example, communities based around language or shared culture and history; historical patterns of previous electoral boundaries” and taking into account geographic size.
Because of those three factors, boundary commissions are allowed to create ridings that vary 25 per cent below or above the average population per riding.
Before the boundary commissions were set up, there was some concern that there could be some gerrymandering in order to benefit certain parties. MPs last week said the process has been done in a fair manner, and community of interest or historical name changes were the top issues.
“It’s more about the concept of community of interest staying together rather than being divided than anything to do with whether I can get votes here or get votes there. I figure you’ve got to go with the flow. If you move your boundary you get yourself known by the people in the new area,” Ms. Fry said.
“There has never been a boundary change that my riding didn’t get a change. It is one of the fastest growing ridings in Canada so I expect the density of the riding will make shifts occur. In terms of whether the shifts are good for me or bad for me, I actually figure that I can deal with it. It’s not a big deal. I have three years in which to get the people in the new part of my riding known to me. I’ve done it before, every shift I’ve had to deal with,” Ms. Fry said.
NDP MP Peter Julian, who has represented the suburban Vancouver riding of Burnaby-New Westminster, B.C., since 2004, and who won the last election with 49.7 per cent of the vote, agreed. He said he hasn’t looked at the changes to his riding in terms of whether he’s gained or lost support, but rather if communities are maintained within the new boundaries. He said the changes don’t worry him because NDP support is growing, especially in British Columbia.
“There’s no doubt that there’s a significant shift in public opinion in B.C. What matters is that the community neighbourhoods that have a common community history and a community of interest are kept together and certainly that’s what the public is saying as well,” said Mr. Julian, whose father Terry Julian worked on boundary commissions and wrote a book about his experience—The Candid Commission: An Insider’s Revealing Story of B.C.’s Royal Commission on Electoral Boundaries.
“We’ll see the final result, but the commission does its best to put out an initial draft and in 2002 they were very attentive to listen to public concerns and to respond to what the public was saying. If they do that the same way this time, it’ll be a I think very appropriate redrawing of the map and the creation of a new fifth riding in that area,” Mr. Julian said.
In Ontario, where the majority of new seats will be in the Greater Toronto Area, Liberal MP John McCallum’s Markham-Unionville, Ont., riding will be affected with the creation of a new riding in the Toronto suburb. He said last week that he’s not “unhappy” with the proposed boundaries, but he will be making a presentation at the commission hearing to keep a community together. Mr. McCallum has represented his riding since 2000 and won the last election with 38.9 per cent of the vote.
“The whole point is you should preserve communities and there’s a part of my riding, the southern part of Markham which I think should go all the way to the eastern border of Markham and the present proposal cuts it off earlier. There’s a lot of evidence and people of Markham seem to agree that that whole region constitutes a community and should not be broken into two ridings,” Mr. McCallum said, adding that he’s spoken to city councillors and the mayor who agree with him.
Mr. McCallum will also be commenting on the changes in a householder to his constituents which hasn’t been mailed out yet, he said, but there has not been a “flood” of emails from constituents with concern.
Similarly, in a neighbouring riding of Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont., Liberal MP John McKay said he doesn’t have any concerns but will be monitoring the commission’s progress.
“It’s not so much, politically, but you worry about community of interest and I think the big change in Scarborough is Scarborough gets a full riding,” he said. “We’re just monitoring it. It will depend on whether there are other people saying different things, but at this point I’m not seeing anything.”
Mr. McKay has represented the riding since 1997 and won it with 36.2 per cent in the last election and by 691 votes.
Liberal House Leader Marc Garneau, whose Westmount-Ville Marie riding will be changing names and boundaries, said he will also be making a presentation to the Quebec commission on Oct. 19 to raise concerns. Mr. Garneau, first elected in 2008 won the last federal election with 37.2 per cent of the vote and by 642 votes.
“There are a couple of issues. When you redraw boundaries, you’re supposed to try to preserve communities of interest, and in a couple of cases, we think that’s not the case. Also in some cases there have been some new names put in which change the history. The name Westmount will disappear. It’s been there for 100 years. The name NDG, Notre Dame de Grace, will disappear so we have some concerns about that as well. Name changes, and in some cases the way that boundaries have been cut, they’ve cut through some communities of interest,” he said last week.
In Alberta, Democratic Reform Minister Tim Uppal’s Edmonton-Sherwood Park riding will be affected, but he has previously declined to comment on the changes. He told Huffington Post Canada in August that he will be running in the new riding of Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan in 2015 and said he won’t see a difference in representing a more suburban riding which will no longer include urban Edmonton if the changes are accepted. Mr. Uppal, first elected in 2008, won his riding in the last election with 44.7 per cent of the vote.
“Having that rural-urban split was interesting, even when it was Edmonton—Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan, the majority of the issues were the same,” he told Huffington Post Canada. “People were concerned about jobs, people were concerned about crime and making sure their taxes are low, so I’m not sure if this changes that much.”
Provinces with no additional seats also have held hearings on riding changes, as populations in those provinces could have increased or decreased and individual ridings warrant new boundaries. All the commissions are set to wrap up their public consultations by the end of November.
Commissions are then required to submit a finalized report to Parliament by Dec. 21. MPs will then have the opportunity to object to any changes which will then be forwarded to the Procedure and House Affairs Committee.
If the committee reports any changes to the commissions’ reports and they are accepted by the House, the commissions have 30 days to make any changes. A final report must be submitted to the House Speaker by June 2013 at which point the chief electoral officer will create a “representation order” to publicize the final boundaries. The new ridings will take effect once the governor in council proclaims them and must be done at least one year in advance of the next election, expected in October 2015.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Bea Vongdouangchanh
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