For
Immediate Release
December 8, 2005
Queen’s Park – In an effort to ensure fair representation for all Ontarians, Lanark-Carleton MPP and critic for Democratic Renewal Norm Sterling yesterday re-introduced a bill that will, if passed, enshrine in legislation a fair process by which an independent Electoral Boundaries Commission would review and redraw riding boundaries.
In 1962 Premier John Robarts established Ontario’s first independent electoral boundaries commission and told the Legislature the commission was “designed to remove the whole matter from the field of politics.”
“Since that time we have not had our electoral boundaries changed by legislation without the advice of an independent commission,” said Mr. Sterling. “But in Bill 214, currently before the House, the McGuinty government is trying to do just that, something which can easily be perceived as Gerrymandering, or the intentional drawing of electoral boundaries for partisan benefit.”
The Charter of Rights in Canada’s Constitution guarantees all Canadians effective and equal representation. Bill 214 does not provide Ontarians with equal representation. If this Bill passes, some MPPs would represent more than 120,000 constituents while MPPs for Northern Ontario ridings would represent an average of 76,000 constituents. In order to ensure we all have equal representation in our federal and provincial governments, riding populations are to come within 25% of the average riding population. Exceptions can be granted for geographically vast ridings however not all of the Northern ridings are geographically large. Under Bill 214, 10 of the 11 Northern Ontario ridings would be under-populated and overrepresented.
Mr. Sterling’s bill would require that the commission determine the number of ridings in Ontario based on maintaining 11 ridings in the North. This will ensure strong representation for Northern Ontario not only for the next election but forever more and at the same time ensure fair representation for all Ontarians.
“As a member of the Harris Government I supported using the results of the federal Electoral Boundaries Commission to create provincial ridings that mirrored the federal ridings,” said Mr. Sterling. “But since this government has made the promise to maintain 11 ridings in the North, I believe we must redistribute the ridings in the South to ensure fair representation even though this will likely mean having an additional ten or more MPPs.”
The proposed Electoral Boundaries Commission (Ontario) Act is modeled on the Federal Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act. As such an Electoral Boundary Commission consisting of one judge appointed by Ontario’s Chief Justice and two other individuals entitled to vote in Ontario and appointed by the Speaker of the Ontario Legislature will be struck every 10 years following a census. The proposed Act also calls for the immediate creation of an Electoral Boundaries Commission to redraw the boundaries before the next election to be held on October 4, 2007.
In order to ensure fairness, the commission will be instructed to try to create ridings with relatively equal populations while taking into consideration factors like geography and historical boundaries. As an outside rule, no riding should have a population more than 25% smaller or larger than the average population of all Ontario ridings.
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For more information, please call Lanark-Carleton MPP Norm Sterling at: (416) 314-7900