Commentaire 56 – commentaires et rétroaction

Philip Charbonneau

First, I'd like to thank you all for being members of the Ontario Commission. I know that doing these redistributions can be a complex, time consuming and an often thankless job. Many citizens don't understand the balancing act needed between population growth, political history, municipal and natural boundaries and cultural/linguistic considerations for the foundation of our riding boundaries. So, again, thank you for taking the time out of your lives to do this service.

I have some recommendations on the boundaries proposed. I've divided this message into the three areas of the province I have suggestions for, namely the area around Waterloo region, the Windsor-Essex area, and Halton region. Additionally, I have included a few comments about other specific areas or ridings that didn't need a full detailed section. I've included maps I've made of my suggested adjustments to the proposed boundaries.

Halton Region:

Georgetown-Milton East and Burlington-Milton West: I argue the axis of division in the area should be north-south rather than east-west. A north Halton riding taking in all of Georgetown and everything north of Derry Road would include the historic ‘core’ part of the city of Milton and pair it with Georgetown. The area south of Derry Road and North of Dundas Street could form a central Halton riding taking in the newer developments of Milton which have not fully formed part of the cultural core of the city as of yet, as well as some outlying newer developments in the northern parts of Burlington and Oakville. I would also suggest including a smaller portion of Burlington west of Highway 407 and north of Highway 403, bounded instead by Brant Street and Dundas Street and the 407. While this riding becomes a bit of a conglomeration of ‘leftovers’, it does so by only encompassing those communities outside the cores of Milton, Burlington and Oakville leaving those urban identities intact. I would further suggest changing the names of both of these ridings to something simpler, such as Halton North and Halton Centre.

Oakville Lakeshore, Burlington Lakeshore, and Oakville North: I would suggest that these three ridings be adjusted slightly to better align to municipal boundaries. I suggest extending Burlington Lakeshore to the municipal boundary at Burloak while transferring the areas north of Upper Middle Road to Guelph Line to the riding of Oakville North. Oakville Lakeshore should align its western boundary south of the 403 to Burloak as well. Additionally extending the western boundary north of the 403 to Sixth Line would make up for this population loss. I would further suggest some name changes. The overuse of ‘Lakeshore’ in riding names could pose a possible point of confusion for voters, especially since 4 of these ‘Lakeshore’ ridings are all in a row (Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, and Etobicoke). My suggestion is to simply name the two Lakeshore ridings in Halton region to their respective municipal names of Burlington and Oakville. This would reduce the chance of voter confusion and carry on existing naming conventions. Additionally, I suggest renaming Oakville North to Bronte. Oakville North does not reflect the portion of the riding that includes neighbourhoods of Burlington and may get confused with the neighbouring Oakville riding. Bronte is a well known provincial park and creek in the riding and would make a good name.

Thank you again for your time and dedication to this process. I hope my suggestions are helpful and I'm looking forward to seeing the final boundaries.

Have a wonderful day,

Philip Charbonneau