Excerpted from Hansard – March 7, 2005.

Responses to Ministers Statements

Mr. Norman W. Sterling (Lanark–Carleton):

 I’d also like to comment with regard to the provision that we’re going to have 11 ridings in the north. If we have 11 ridings in the north, that’s fine and dandy by us. But we also have to be fair to the south as well. Our constitution says that every citizen has the same equal vote. When you look at the numbers that come out, with regard to 107 ridings, we have ridings that are going to be 34% below the provincial average, which is 106,600 people. There are three ridings in the north which are smaller than ridings in the south. Yet those ridings in the south are not going to have average representations of a population of 76,000 or 77,000; they’re going to have populations of over 110,000.

It’s not only that this act is in contravention of the federal Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, which is our legislation where we set our boundaries, but it’s also in contravention of section 3 of the Charter of Rights. This bill allows that of the 11 constituencies in the north, 10 are above the 25% limit contained in the readjustment act. If in fact the government wants 11 ridings in the north, then let’s go ahead, but we will have to have more ridings in the south.

Therefore, I would say to the minister, as we go through this process, the only fair thing to do is, if you want to retain 11 in the north, then set up a provincial election boundaries commission to establish how many ridings we should have in the south and that those people should have equal representation to those in the north. Some of the people I represent will have a population of 113,000 in our riding, with 9,600 square kilometres to cover, whereas the riding of Sault Ste. Marie in the north will have a population of 74,000 and covers 250 square kilometres. This doesn’t add up. The Charter of Rights is for all Ontarians, whether they’re in the north, whether they’re in the east or whether they’re in the south.