Comment 63 – comments and feedback

Roger Jacobs

I am a resident of the Tyandaga neighbourhood of Burlington. Any of the very few residents of Tyandaga that are even aware of the movement of their neighbourhood into a riding dominated by fast-growing Milton are in disbelief of the logic of such a shift. To put this in context, our civic region boundaries gerrymander us within the much larger neighbourhood of Aldershot . At the civic level, our local vote has no impact, and elected councillors are slow (and less motivated) to understand the needs of our community. We feel the same would happen at the federal level. Most of the Tyandaga neighbourhood works in Burlington, Hamilton and Toronto.

We share our concerns with other urban, lakeshore areas, and not with rural farms, quarries and the ballooning city of Milton, who work locally, or in Mississauga, Brampton and Toronto.

Some consequences of this strange move:

1. We would be a 30 minute drive to a local constituency office (longer if not on the toll road), and it is not accessible by public transit (or a GO train ride to Toronto, and back out again (and only at rush hour).
2. Tyandaga has no local infrastructure for a polling station. We normally vote in the Mount forest neighbourhood, now a separate riding.
3. Local concerns are not shared with Milton - we are in conflict on issues of land use, importance of Lake Ontario watershed, location of federal government offices for environment, employment and social services. Altogether, this weakens Burlington's voice in parliament.
4. With the majority of votes in Milton, 'our' MP's attention will act to increase government and business investment in Milton, to the detriment of Burlington.
5. Almost nobody knows that re-districting is in progress. Others think its a back-room fait-accomplis. Moving forward without effective consultation will build local disaffection with the remoteness of decision-making and alienate voters , further reducing voter turnout.

The proposed redistricting is clearly guided by roads and existing regional boundaries, which are both legacies of early development. Land-use and employment patterns are more meaningful criteria to better enable MPs to address solutions compatible with the most residents. The semi-rural regions between Burlington/Oakville and Hwy 401 have a great deal in common with Flamborough. Waterdown is more intimately connected to Burlington than Hamilton. Canadians will be better represented in Ottawa if not balkanised by thoughtless, irrelevant criteria. I strongly urge the boundaries integral to Burlington, Waterdown and Oakville be reconsidered by land-use and employment criteria, with REAL public consultation.

Roger Jacobs