Commentaire 32 – commentaires et rétroaction

Danny Moufti

I am writing to you today regarding your latest proposal for the redistribution of electoral districts in Ontario, and specifically my own district of Kitchener South — Hespeler. I am writing today as a concerned citizen of Hespeler. While I understand the need for redistribution every ten years, and highly respect the work that you and your colleagues are undertaking, there are a number of issues which I believe have been overlooked.

As I mentioned, I am a resident of Hespeler—a town which you are now proposing to split in half. Half of us would go join Cambridge, seemingly to 'unify Cambridge'. While the other half would go join Kitchener Conestoga, for seemingly no good reason.

There are very local dynamics that I can't expect the commission to have known when coming up with this plan, but I will do my best to help bring them to light as I believe they're incredibly important.

On paper, Hespeler is just 'part of Cambridge', but in reality, it is so much more than that—or at least, we consider ourselves to be! My grandparents lived here when I was growing up, as did my cousins. I lived in Cambridge for most of my life, but have always had a strong relationship with Hespeler and moved here myself in 2015. Did you notice the distinction I just made? It is an extremely common one to make, whether you live in Hespeler, or elsewhere in Cambridge.

While the towns of Galt, Preston, and Hespeler were legally joined together decades ago to form Cambridge, Hespeler has never truly accepted this. People in Galt and Preston today will certainly tell you they're from Cambridge. Here in Hespeler, a common joke when a newcomer comments about how beautiful it is here "in Cambridge" is to whisper to them "Don't let anybody here hear you say that!". Whether you live in Cambridge or Hespeler, Hespeler is Hespeler, and Cambridge is the rest.

Those of us who live here feel we are part of a distinct and tight-knit community, with its own identity. We all display the word Hespeler all over our houses, have our own events, leagues and teams. Kids here don't play hockey for the Cambridge Hawks; they play hockey for the Hespeler Shamrocks!

We also don't all reside on one side of the river. My friends and I play trivia once a week together, either at Four Father's, north of the River, or at the New York, just south of the river. Most of us walk over, from either side of the river. We are all Hespelerites, and we feel a much greater sense of shared identity with each other than to Cambridge, or especially to Kitchener.

I understand that as outsiders, you might just see "a part of Cambridge that should be rejoined" and try to make that happen to the greatest extent possible, I really want you to understand that we do not care who we are attached to; what we do care about is remaining together as one community. If the choice is to split us in half so that half of us could rejoin the city we've never felt like we belonged to, or to stay together, then it is not a question—we would like to remain as one.

If anything, while being attached to a Kitchener district last redistribution was initially pretty confusing for many of us, I can say that I and many others I know are very happy that the name "Hespeler" is a part of the riding name. We take pride in it. It's a recognition of what we've always known and felt; that we are our own separate community, not just some part of a larger city—we're finally on the map to prove it!

Finally, while we're typically a merry bunch, there is one thing many of us dislike in Hespeler, and that's change—particularly of the unnecessary variety. From my understanding, the commission's goal is to get every district's population more or less around the same target number. I've done some back of the napkin math, and it seems like the current proposal puts the district of Cambridge even further away from that target, while keeping the proposed Kitchener South — North Dumfries district at about the same distance from it (albeit in the opposite direction). What is the point of this? Those of us on the South side will have traded hands back and forth between Kitchener South and Cambridge each distribution. Those in the North will actually be part of a whole new riding each redistribution! I don't understand what the point of this is if it doesn't even seem to achieve the commission's goals. We have just gotten used to our new riding, and changing things this frequently only serves to sow confusion about who to contact and where to access help from our federal and provincial representatives.

Again, I have an enormous amount of respect for you and the work you're doing, and I can see how you could arrive at the initial proposal you did. You can't be from every town in Ontario, and there is no way the proposal can account for all of the small local dynamics that exist out there. I do hope that I've helped explain why many of us here are upset about the plan as it stands, and I especially hope that your commitment to public input is more than just an empty promise.

Thanks for taking the time to hear me out, and good luck with the rest of your work!

Kind regards,

Danny Moufti