Comment 141 – comments and feedback

Beth Pye

I reside in what you refer to as Kingston East, and I understand that a suggestion has been put forward that this portion of the current riding of Kingston and the Islands be combined with a riding that includes Gananoque, Prescott, and Brockville. I strongly oppose this suggestion. Our community is in the city of Kingston, all our services and amenities are Kingston based and we do not share common interests with these other communities.

Currently, those of us in "Kingston East" are approximately 8 kilometres from the constituency offices of both our federal elected representative Mark Gerretson and our provincial elected representative Ted Hsu. We are actually closer to downtown Kingston (5 km) than most people who reside in this city! If we were suddenly combined with Gananoque, Brockville, and Prescott we could be as far as 99 kilometres from our representatives. That would be unacceptable.

The federal government just helped to fund our Third Crossing bridge to join the people west of the Cataraqui River to the people in the East end of KIngston. That is because we all travel back and forth within our city so often that we required another route than our causeway or the 401. Many people from the west end work at the military base in the east end and many people from the east end work across the narrow river at Queen's U or Kingston General Hospital.

We are not Kingston East Enders or West Enders. We are Kingstonians. We want representation by people who understand Kingston because they live here too! This proposal would mean we might be represented by a resident of a tiny town far away. They might do their best but they couldn't possibly understand the needs of our growing, vibrant city.

Such a proposal is detrimental to our sense of community and will affect the accessibility to our elected representatives.

I consent to having my full name and comments posted on the electoral boundary commission's website.

Yours truly,

Beth Pye