Commentaire 46 – commentaires et rétroaction

Linda (Lin) Geary

Seeing my home municipality of the County of Brant about to be divided amongst maybe three or four new electoral districts dismays me. My electoral habit of voting feels on the verge of disappearing. I am used to knowing my MPs and MPPs because we share many cultural and business connections. I am used to bumping into them at theatres and arenas, church events and the farmers' market. So finding my new Electoral District for Paris will lose its Brantford hub, to be repaced by a distant hub in Woodstock with rural Oxford and Ayr, I feel the weight of electoral silence descending and outweighing common sense.

Apparently our current district of Brantford- Brant is within the required population quota to be able to remain unchanged. So I have to ask 1) is change occurring just for the sake of bureaucratic change? 2) does this change matter to Six Nations on the Grand? 3) how will the governance of the County of Brant be improved if the Mayor must now juggle planning and finance matters with 3 or 4 MPs and 3 or 4 MPPs? 4) how will sustainability of resources be affected? 5) will smaller political parties take an undemocratic and existential shellacking? 6) what will slip through the new cracks without notice?

If disruption is the game, residents of Glen Morris well know the feeling. In 2011, they lived in the ED of Brantford-Brant. In 2012 they were surprised to find themselves lumped in with Cambridge (Galt, etc.) Now they may be whipped into Oxford County with Woodstock as it's urban centre. I think those residents would agree that you have given them a bad case of electoral whiplash along with great incentive to stop voting. Do any of you ever scratch your head and bother to wonder why the trend in election turnout is a big Canadian yawn?

Please understand, I want to vote, and so does my family. But how does one trust unknown candidates? Were some of the electoral districts or ridings re-jigged to someone's or some party's specifications other than a population number pulled out of a hat? Or, as they say, "cui bono?"

If the government gave all political parties an election fund so we the voters could get to know all our candidates adequately, maybe redistricting would pose less of a challenge. Right now, redistricting is simply unfair to the voters. And not very instructive to younger generations who tend not to head to the polls unless extreme policies scream at them. Who do we want to encourage to vote and who do we expect will stop? I would like to know that you have some really good answers.

Otherwise, I want to stay in the Brantford-Brant riding until I can see a much clearer redistribution protocol and outcome.

Thank you for listening.

Respectfully,

Linda (Lin) Geary