The proposed federal boundary election changes still don’t make sense.
While we realize the new electoral landscape of Alberta includes six additional ridings, it is clear that it does not reflect the communities it aims to represent. The shift will lump together communities with nothing in common and likely cause political ire.
Case in point, the proposed Peace River-Westlock riding. It will span more than 800 kilometres north-south, and include not only Westlock, but communities like Barrhead, Whitecourt, Slave Lake, Peace River and High Level.
The change begs the question: Who will replace Westlock-St. Paul MP Brian Storseth if he chooses to run closer to his St. Paul home, now placed in a different riding?
It will be unmanageable and untenable for an MP to care for an area that effectively spans from Edmonton to the Northwest Territories.
The funding available for MPs to travel has decreased and the new MP will be hard-pressed to plan to visit all of their constituents. Some of these communities lack year-round ground access. Short of costly plane trips, how will these communities be looked after?
Creating a federal electoral area as wide and diverse as this feels like somebody in Ottawa simply took a pen and arbitrarily drew lines on a map.
Now, we’re aware the House of Commons has had some discussions with the community about the public’s dissatisfaction with the proposed changes — in fact there have been several — but obviously these concerns haven’t carried any weight with the feds, yet.
Once made, however, the new federal electoral boundaries won’t be reviewed again for another decade and this is a choice the communities will be stuck with for many years to come.
The only good news is that Storseth said he’s hoping to see an additional riding map produced before the proposed changes are accepted, even though it is unclear when that information will be available.
We can only hope any new maps account for what the grassroots are saying.
