Comment 26 – comments and feedback

Rick Blanchard

Individually, I very much support the redistribution, specifically the allocation of many rural areas and small villages of the present Kanata-Carleton to the proposed Algonquin-Renfrew-Nipissing constituency.

As this is my own view, my location and background first: I am a life-long resident of the Carp River Valley, at Hazeldean, Glen Cairn and for the past 40 years at XXXXXXXX within Kanata-Carleton riding. I have met all our MPs since Walter Baker (1960s & 1970s), whose constituency reached from Hazeldean down to the St. Lawrence River at one time, and Paul Dick, who at that time represented people in a riding from March Township, now Kanata, NW to Pembroke and Barrys Bay. Now it is proposed that the constituency run from mid-West Carleton NW through Renfrew County, a very large area resembling, but even smaller than the one Paul Dick well represented at one time (Lanark-Renfrew-Carleton). I am a local history buff, author and since 1980 I have several times volunteered for candidates in municipal, provincial and federal elections, the latter two levels as a partisan. For election signs, I have driven every road and lane in the affected regions being proposed for redistribution to neighbouring, more rural ridings. I am a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party of Canada, a past board member of the party's local association. So my reasons as follows will be regarded by my compatriots in urban Kanata as heresy .

I think the proposed inclusion with constituents of a more rural outlook better matches our own demographic and political concerns. In my view, this is notwithstanding, as follows:

1. The fact the onetime municipal combine of three rural townships into West Carleton would be "broken up" for electoral, i.e., democratic-voting, purposes; and
2. We would be a lot more geographically remote from the "centre".

In my own view, politically, the riding has been swamped by essentially more urban issues, especially "affordable housing". I have had no luck, working within the present set-up, raising interest in such matters as affordable, fixed broadband access to the Internet (see CRTC map); nor increased attention towards the extensive interprovincial Ottawa riverfront for preventative and remedial measures on flooding and pollution. I cannot stir the urban minds predominant in this present riding to focus on, such as the following:

1. Agricultural land acquisition/bonded-financing by unfriendly foreign actors and the plight of the professional farmer day-to-day as well as succession costs;
2. Efficient and clean re-industrialization projects, including fixed rail infrastructure with grade separation for scheduled transport of materiel, goods, perhaps passengers and, for that matter, military equipment and personnel;
3. Resolution of, or even progress on the land claim and outstanding matters of specific concern to the indigenous-Algonkin Anishinabe people, both on and off Reserve, on both sides of the Ottawa River (I think their internal schism is being 'played' politically);
4. Methodical attention paid towards national and international promotion of, and support for the tourism industry, which has been far less effective than efforts across the Ottawa River in the Pontiac; and
5. The very serious, needed restoration of overall Canadian military capability.

All the above are matters that would have more chance of getting more attention in a riding with more ag land, more larger non-'hi-tech' industry, an Indian Act Reserve, more potential tourism than Kanata, and a military base.

Sincerely,

Rick Blanchard