Commentaire 88 – commentaires et rétroaction

Brian Wallace

My name is Brian Wallace, a constituent of the small village community of Carp, Ontario. Carp has a long history of being an agricultural hub in the rural Ottawa Valley and in addition to this, in recent decades, has been an attractive location for people wishing to move away from high density urban life. I believe that the same can be said for other surrounding rural based communities like Kinburn, Fitzroy Harbour and Constance Bay. Under today's configuration, these communities are served by the same member of Parliament in the riding of Kanata Carleton.

I have heard information about the proposal to divide up these small communities into separate ridings. I believe that this is not in the best interest of constituents in any of these locations. These communities have similar shared and unique concerns and issues and as such, would be better served by the same Member of Parliament. Separating Carp's representation from the rest of our rural neighbouring communities, as an example, would muffle our democratic voice. In moving Carp's representation to a new "Kanata only" riding, our voice of about 2,500 residents would be lost amongst the 50,000+ urban residents of Kanata. Similar dynamics would also happen when you divide the other small rural communities in West Carleton and assign them to new ridings with more of an urban base.

I am opposed to the proposed changes and hope that my position is taken into consideration. I believe that I am not alone with this opinion. Perhaps a better way to approach this is to ask consitiuents their opinion on these proposed changes rather than moving forward with minimal consultation.

Thank you for the opportunity to voice my thoughts.

Sincerely,

Brian Wallace