Commentaire 76 – commentaires et rétroaction

Noor Samiei

I hope this message finds you well. Below I have attached MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon statement regarding the redistribution of federal electoral boundaries.

"As a newly elected Member of Provincial Parliament for Beaches-East York, it is important to discuss the riding changes being proposed. I want to echo the sentiment of my federal counterparts for my dissatisfaction towards the changes. The federal riding changes immensely impact Toronto by cutting down 25 seats to 24 seats. As a former City Councillor, I have witnessed first-hand the impact changes can have on an individual in any given community. The impact to Beaches-East York may be viewed as minimal but will heavily affect residents between Coxwell and Glebemount. This includes the loss of Michael Garron Hospital within our borders. The loss of the hospital in our riding will be significant. These changes will hinder representatives' abilities to adequately represent and provide assistance to constituents across the riding. Larger constituencies can cause detrimental impacts on the quality of help being provided. My constituency office currently faces barriers as is. Unfortunately, our current resources are scarce as a result of the Ontario Liberal Party not obtaining Official Party Status this June election.

Although Toronto's population has remained lower throughout the years, it is in the best interest of all to maintain the current boundaries. Rather than looking at a list of aggregated numbers, the focus should be based on representation. These numbers fail to take into account a rich set of communities that exists among these borders.

Another aspect of these changes is regarding the name of our riding. It is unnecessary to change the riding name from "Beaches East-York" to "The Beaches East-York". Our focus should continue to remain on best helping constituents and strengthening our current ridings rather than a potential name change."

Regards,

Noor