Normally when one is thinking about electoral boundaries, the term special circumstances is only used to allow ridings with populations that are too low, why not do it to allow a population that is too high?
I am having trouble thinking of a place where one could do this. I was looking at the Capital Regional District and seeing what happens if you lose an MLA, but a single larger riding does not seem to be able to make up for the population over run in the rest of the ridings.
I am thinking about this because I am trying to see what tools there are to achieve better representation in rural BC.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Electoral Boundaries Commission Report
The BC EBC preliminary report has been released.
I am not happy they only chose to add 2 more MLAs, that is not enough to maintain the representation of Rural BC.
The North:
There is the loss of a riding in the region. They are proposing 7 ridings instead of the current 8. Changes:
I like the Prince George donut riding approach. Currently there are three PG ridings that take in all the rural areas around PG and Prince George dominates all three ridings. Now you have one very rural riding, one mixed and one urban.
The Peace has sort of lost a riding, almost all the Peace population in one riding and with a new Northland riding that is north of the Peace
It is the Northwest that has effectively lost a riding.
Thompson Cariboo
Loss of a riding in the region. Loss of my old stomping grounds of Yale Lillooet - this will be first time since 1871 there has not been Yale or Lillooet in a riding name.
The change is the loss of Yale Lillooet with the north part of the riding going into what was Cariboo South. The Similkameen going into the Okanagan and Hope in the Fraser Valley.
The Okanagan
Interesting, the new riding is the south Okanagan, which was helped with population from Yale Lillooet and West Kootenay Boundary.
The Kootenaies
Not only do they lose a riding, but the boundaries are odd. The Cranbrook riding is not together with Fernie and Sparwood, but with areas one associates with Nelson. Revelstoke is with Fernie........
Vancouver Island
Hmmm, the Duncan riding is coming down into Langford. the island north of the Malahat goes up to seven ridings from the current 6.
I like the changes in lower island generally. The changes are large enough that incumbents will not obviously have ridings to be in.
Richmond Delta
Almost no changes
Surrey
Gains another riding to take them to 8. Interestingly, Surrey would now have more MLAs than the north of BC.....
Effectively the new riding comes from the division of Surrey Tynehead into two.
Fraser Valley
Goes from 8 to 9 ridings, they gain the area around Hope.
The return of the In-SHUCK-ch communities to a Fraser Valley riding is not, in my opinion, the best way to go. The access in and out is via Pemberton.
The North Shore
No real changes
The Tri-Cities
With the loss of part of Burnaby, the Tri-Cities get four ridings to themselves
Burnaby New West
No more sharing with the tri cities, so Burnaby gets four ridings to itself
Vancouver
Goes from 10 to 11. The main change being the division of Vancouver Burrard into two ridings
I am not happy they only chose to add 2 more MLAs, that is not enough to maintain the representation of Rural BC.
The North:
There is the loss of a riding in the region. They are proposing 7 ridings instead of the current 8. Changes:
I like the Prince George donut riding approach. Currently there are three PG ridings that take in all the rural areas around PG and Prince George dominates all three ridings. Now you have one very rural riding, one mixed and one urban.
The Peace has sort of lost a riding, almost all the Peace population in one riding and with a new Northland riding that is north of the Peace
It is the Northwest that has effectively lost a riding.
Thompson Cariboo
Loss of a riding in the region. Loss of my old stomping grounds of Yale Lillooet - this will be first time since 1871 there has not been Yale or Lillooet in a riding name.
The change is the loss of Yale Lillooet with the north part of the riding going into what was Cariboo South. The Similkameen going into the Okanagan and Hope in the Fraser Valley.
The Okanagan
Interesting, the new riding is the south Okanagan, which was helped with population from Yale Lillooet and West Kootenay Boundary.
The Kootenaies
Not only do they lose a riding, but the boundaries are odd. The Cranbrook riding is not together with Fernie and Sparwood, but with areas one associates with Nelson. Revelstoke is with Fernie........
Vancouver Island
Hmmm, the Duncan riding is coming down into Langford. the island north of the Malahat goes up to seven ridings from the current 6.
I like the changes in lower island generally. The changes are large enough that incumbents will not obviously have ridings to be in.
Richmond Delta
Almost no changes
Surrey
Gains another riding to take them to 8. Interestingly, Surrey would now have more MLAs than the north of BC.....
Effectively the new riding comes from the division of Surrey Tynehead into two.
Fraser Valley
Goes from 8 to 9 ridings, they gain the area around Hope.
The return of the In-SHUCK-ch communities to a Fraser Valley riding is not, in my opinion, the best way to go. The access in and out is via Pemberton.
The North Shore
No real changes
The Tri-Cities
With the loss of part of Burnaby, the Tri-Cities get four ridings to themselves
Burnaby New West
No more sharing with the tri cities, so Burnaby gets four ridings to itself
Vancouver
Goes from 10 to 11. The main change being the division of Vancouver Burrard into two ridings
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
The Canadian North
It is time in Canada to take the federal government out of the affairs of the north. Yukon, NWT and Nunavut should be moved from territory status to provincial status and gain full control over their lands.
The Canadian federal government is designed to manage a certain bundle of issues for Canadians - national security, foreign affairs, etc........ These are things they do for Canadians in all 308 ridings. They also act as the equivalent to the provincial government for land management in the three northern territories.
What we have is 305 politicians that do not come from the north having the final say over land management in the north. The 3 northern MPs are at best a codicil to the issue. The territories are deprived of what would likely be there biggest source revenues and are treated as money draining supplicants in this confederation.
Once could create them as provinces rather quickly and then create a transition period for management of lands. Immediately transfer the law making power to the new provinces, but retain the federal staff on secondment to the new lands ministries in the north and have a cost sharing transition in place over ten years. At the end of the ten years, the north should be able to operate things on their own.
The north will have a much higher interest and incentive in looking into how to make their lands support their people and society. They could also make better decisions about the sort of infrastructure they need, something the federal government seems incapable of doing.
All of this could only be done if there are clear arrangements made for the areas where there are no Treaties yet.
The Canadian federal government is designed to manage a certain bundle of issues for Canadians - national security, foreign affairs, etc........ These are things they do for Canadians in all 308 ridings. They also act as the equivalent to the provincial government for land management in the three northern territories.
What we have is 305 politicians that do not come from the north having the final say over land management in the north. The 3 northern MPs are at best a codicil to the issue. The territories are deprived of what would likely be there biggest source revenues and are treated as money draining supplicants in this confederation.
Once could create them as provinces rather quickly and then create a transition period for management of lands. Immediately transfer the law making power to the new provinces, but retain the federal staff on secondment to the new lands ministries in the north and have a cost sharing transition in place over ten years. At the end of the ten years, the north should be able to operate things on their own.
The north will have a much higher interest and incentive in looking into how to make their lands support their people and society. They could also make better decisions about the sort of infrastructure they need, something the federal government seems incapable of doing.
All of this could only be done if there are clear arrangements made for the areas where there are no Treaties yet.
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