“It would be possible, but it would require collusion on the part of the people appointed to the commission,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.). “Certainly, my experience with the British Columbia commission, where I’ve certainly paid more attention, is that couldn’t happen there. I’m doubtful it could happen in Saskatchewan.”
The issue arose three weeks ago when Liberal MP Ralph Goodale (Wascana, Sask.), the lone Grit MP in the province of 14 seats, 13 of which are held by Conservatives, received complaints about calls constituents received on the changes to the electoral boundaries in their province.
The automated calls talked about how the electoral boundary commission was ignoring “important traditions and history” in the province and “destroying our federal ridings and pitting urban against rural interests by creating federal ridings that would elect urban-only members of Parliament.”
The automated calls were not originally identified, but the Conservative Party later admitted to doing the push poll in the province.
Ms. May said the calls in and of themselves are “neither illegal nor particularly wrong” as the commission’s job is to listen to the public.
“If you did have people showing up at the hearings and asking for different boundaries, that’s the commissioner’s job, to listen to the public’s concerns. So if there was political posturing to say, ‘Get out there and tell them you want to move into this riding so we can tilt it enough to have the conservatives benefit,’ that’s not, unless those calls are paid for by taxpayers dollars; that’s not illegal, that’s just you know, stirring up your troops to say, ‘We want the boundaries here instead of there,’ ” she told The Hill Times.
“I mean, there were people from other parties advocating for boundaries in Saanich-Gulf Islands, advocating for changes that would have hurt my chances of getting re-elected … but most of the people who showed up, presented reasons that they didn’t want to be removed from the riding. So I think it’s possible to manipulate the results through mobilizing your base, but that’s neither illegal nor particularly wrong, unless you’re using government of Canada resources to do it,” said Ms. May.
NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto Danforth, Ont.) asked about the issue in Question Period last week saying that the Conservatives were defending “a dishonourable scheme to put pressure on the non-partisan boundary commission” in the province.
“He [Prime Minister Stephen Harper] defended it with an enthusiasm that should cause all Canadians deep concern. The House leader then claimed the government’s support for these tactics is equivalent to two Newfoundland MPs legitimately appearing before a House committee to request a boundary adjustment,” Mr. Scott said. “Does the government stand by the House leader’s effort to change the channel with such manifestly incorrect and false comparisons?”
In response, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz (Battlefords-Lloydminister, Sask.) reiterated the government’s response: “Electoral boundary processes encourage input from Parliamentarians, public, and political parties. It is well known that our party agrees with the 75 per cent of people in Saskatchewan who support the riding boundaries as they are. StatsCan’s latest report shows that Saskatoon and Regina are the fastest growing, youngest demographic cities in Canada. I do not understand why the opposition wants to limit the representation from those two great cities.”
The Procedure and House Affairs Committee has been studying reports outlining the finalized provincial boundary commission proposals as part of the 10-year federal riding redistribution review since Jan. 29.
The House will add 30 seats, jumping from 308 to 338 in 2015. Of these seats, 15 will be added to Ontario, six to British Columbia, six in Alberta, and three in Quebec. While some provinces don’t get to add seats, their riding boundaries are studied because of shifts in population or communities of interest and therefore ridings can be changed. That is the case with Saskatchewan.
For what is believed to be the first time in Canadian history, one of Saskatchewan’s three boundary commission members, Dave Marit, wrote a dissenting, or minority, report speaking out “strongly” against the changes proposed by the majority of the commission.
Mr. Marit said the province should maintain its urban-rural blended ridings, and he said close to 75 per cent of communications received by the commission were opposed to the proposed changes.
The committee will be reviewing the Saskatchewan commission’s report when the House returns from its break week on Feb. 25.
Ms. May said that it’s highly unlikely that there is any gerrymandering, or manipulating the boundaries for partisan purposes, going on in Saskatchewan but said Canadians “should care about the possibility.”
“They should care about robocalls, they should care about voter suppression, they should care about attack ads; anything that’s designed to use unfair advantage to rig the game. Democracy is really important and it really matters that every vote counts and the first past the post system is another concern,” she said.
Liberal MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Ont.) said he hasn’t paid close attention to the Saskatchewan commission, but said if there is any gerrymandering going, “it’s dangerous” for democracy.
“If it’s true, if there is gerrymandering going on, this is really a fine line and it reminds me, if it’s true, of some of the activities I saw last October when I co-led the most senior international pre-election mission into Ukraine with a former governor of the state of New Jersey, and we saw activities there to gerrymander and rig, and affect electoral outcomes. If this is happening in Canada, this is really really dangerous stuff and it is to be taken really seriously,” he said. “I hope it’s not possible. I hope it’s not happening, because it breeds cynicism, it breeds disappointment and Canadians continue to check out. I don’t think we can afford to check out.”
Meanwhile, the Procedure and House Affairs Committee heard from Alberta MPs who disagreed with the Alberta electoral boundary commission’s report on changes to their ridings.
Two Elections Canada employees—Johanne Boisvert, assistant director, analysis electoral redistribution; and Benoit Montpetit, team leader, technical expert electoral geography—attended last week’s meetings to help committee members better understand the differences between the current electoral maps, the electoral map proposed by the commissions and the map changes proposed by MPs.
On Feb. 12, Conservative MPs LaVar Payne (Medicine Hat, Alta.), Jay Hillyer (Lethbridge, Alta.), Joan Crockatt (Calgary Centre, Alta.) and Devinder Shory (Calgary Northeast, Alta.) spoke to their objections, and on Feb. 14, the committee heard from Conservative MP Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, Alta.).
Mr. Payne, whose riding would lose much of its northern half and would move to cover most of the province’s southern border, said he’s heard from hundreds of constituents and said he’s proposing changes that would follow “natural borders.”
Mr. Payne said many of the communities that would be moved into the adjacent Bow River riding—such as the town of Taber—believe they have more in common with Medicine Hat. He said they are concerned about how well they would be represented. Mr. Payne said a small section of the proposed Battle River-Crowfoot south of the Red Deer River should be returned to his riding—he said these areas have more in common with Medicine Hat.
Mr. Payne also suggested renaming his riding, though he didn’t make any specific suggestions.
Neighbouring MP Mr. Hillyer said his constituents were concerned about the riding being cut in half: with the southern half becoming part of the Medicine Hat riding and the northern half becoming the entire Lethbridge riding.
Mr. Hillyer said the southern area of his current is a heavily Mormon one, and while constituents are “happy” they’ve been kept in the same riding, he said they don’t have anything in common with the city of Medicine Hat (and therefore don’t want to be in that riding) and instead have ties to Lethbridge and refer to it as “their city.”
Mr. Hillyer said while the ideal situation for his constituents would be to remain an urban-rural split riding with the city of Lethbridge, he said if Bow River is going to be an all-rural riding, it should include the area south of Lethbridge (meaning Bow River would curve around the proposed Lethbridge riding). Mr. Hillyer also said the riding of Bow River would be better renamed, and suggested something like “Prairie Lands.”
Ms. Crockatt, who was elected MP of Calgary Centre in a byelection last November, said many of her constituents were concerned about the fact that they had no representation while the commission was forming their proposals. Ms. Crockatt said Calgary Centre has historically followed provincial and municipal boundaries and said it should continue to do so as much as possible.
Ms. Crockatt said the commission has added a small portion of industrial area to the southeast corner of her riding while moving a western chunk of residential area into the adjacent riding of Calgary Signal Hill. She said some of that residential area should be moved back into her riding and said the industrial addition should be kept out because it “doesn’t make sense.”
Mr. Shory’s objection to the changes was minor. Mr. Shory said a small commercial section that has been moved from his riding, which will be renamed Calgary Skyview, and into the riding below (now Calgary East but proposed to be renamed Calgary Forest Lawn) should be returned to his riding.
Mr. Shory said according to Elections Canada only five people live in this section, but he said it’s been the location of the riding’s constituency office for the last 15 years—before he was even the MP—and he wants it to stay that way. Mr. Shory said constituents are familiar with the office location, it is easily accessible and he said parking isn’t a problem, unlike other locations.
Finally, Mr. Merrifield said a northern chunk of the proposed new Yellowhead riding which includes the town of Grande Cache should be moved into Grand Prairie, while he said the towns of Whitecourt and Barrhead should be moved back into Yellowhead. Mr. Merrifield said adding these communities to Yellowhead, would help make Mr. Warkentin’s Peace River riding more manageable as it would decrease its population (though he noted it wouldn’t put much of dent in the riding’s massive size).
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: BEA VONGDOUANGCHANH, LAURA RYCKEWAERT
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