Comment 8 – comments and feedback

Erin Polansky

I am writing to participate in the consultation regarding the redistribution process of Federal riding boundaries.

I live in Glenburnie (K0H1S0) which is now part of the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston riding. I participated as a volunteer in the last provincial and federal elections so I got to know the riding pretty well. I can definitively say that Glenburnie does not belong in LFK, nor does it belong in Gananoque-Brockville-Prescott. We belong in Kingston & the Islands.

I am the Rabbi of the Beth Israel Congregation, located in downtown Kingston. It takes me 12 minutes to drive to the synagogue building. My home is less than 5 minutes from the 401 which is the border for the Kingston & the Islands riding. I work, socialize, shop and network all in Kingston. I pay taxes to the City of Kingston. My school board taxes go to the LDSB and CEPEO—both located in Kingston. My garbage is collected by the City of Kingston. My children take swimming lessons in the Community Pools of the City of Kingston and they attend Kingston public schools. We use the Kingston Frontenac Public Libraries. The police that comes to meet with us and protect us at the synagogue are the same police that are responsible for my neighbourhood in Glenburnie. The vast majority of my congregational community is made up of constituents who live and vote in Kingston & The Islands.

I have been to Ganonoque twice. I have never been to Brockville or Prescott. My neighbourhood and community has nothing in common with these areas. To make us vote on issues as if we share the same concerns is misguided and wrong.

The building of the new bridge in Kingston, "the Third Crossing", has a major impact on my life (in a positive way). Nothing about Ganonoque, Brockville or Prescott is remotely relevant to the issues that impact me and my family, nor am I even aware of what those issues might be.

When people ask me where I live, I answer, "Kingston." That is because my life is in Kingston and Glenburnie is merely a close suburban neighbourhood of the city. The Kingston constituency office is one that I have visited before and appealed to for help because it is close and it is more relevant to my situation than my former constituency office in Perth. I would never drive 90km to Brockville to meet with my MP and thus I would not receive the kind of representation that I deserve and am entitled to.

Being part of LFK for the last 5 years that I have lived in Glenburnie has been aggravating. It is a rural riding, and my neighbourhood is urban-adjacent. The rural issues of the riding are completely irrelevant to the vast majority of us. I fear that we would have similar issues were we to be lumped in with GBP.

Every Canadian deserves appropriate representation. To send us to GBP, rather than Kingston & The Islands would make that representation infinitely more difficult, if not impossible. Not only would our concerns not be relevant to GBP, but the fact that we live at such a great distance to the centre of the riding means that we are disconnected and disenfranchised from our representative MP.

I would be happy to discuss this further and continue to participate in this discussion.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Erin Polansky