Comment 21 (18 June 2022) – comments and feedback

Wayne Mattice

Subject: NB federal electoral districts redistribution

It seems there is a dysfunction with the method of determining federal electoral districts, and it is the objective of having an approximately equal number of people in each district. I think revision of this requirement is not your current task, but perhaps you should make it your task.

The overall objective of electing MPs is to have good people represent all New Brunswick. I don't think it matters if an MP comes from a population of 10,000 or 100,000; this doesn't change the quality of our representation. And since our MPs represent the interests of the entire province, and the entire country, not just the area from which they were elected, it doesn't matter the size of their respective districts.

However, there are common economic and social interests for each community. I live in Riverview, and I am assigned to Fundy-Royal, yet my interests are with Moncton and Dieppe, not with Saint John. Assigning parts of cities to unrelated districts does not seem beneficial to government decision making. An MP living in Saint John cannot have a profound understanding of the issues of Moncton-Dieppe-Riverview, for example our bilingual society.

I think you should change the method of determining districts such that socio-economic units are combined, rather than breaking up those units simply to meet an arbitrary determinant of an equal number of citizens in each district. All of Riverview should be part of Moncton-Dieppe-Riverview.

Thanks for considering my point of view.

Wayne Mattice