Commentaire 39 – commentaires et rétroaction

Ryszard Kusmierczyk and Marta Kusmierczyk

Re: Proposed Boundaries and Electoral District Windsor-Tecumseh, Windsor-West, Essex.

Dear Commission Members;

My wife Marta and I have been residents of Windsor-Tecumseh since 1984, and during those years we actively participated as volunteers in all federal and provincial campaigns. Participating in the democratic process and the life of our nation is important.

Although we very much appreciate both the challenge, and the hard work of the committee to propose changes that would better balance representation in the ridings of Southwestern Ontario, We would like to take this opportunity to present our serious disagreement with the boundary changes as proposed.

To put it simply, please keep our existing boundaries intact.

Our position is based on the reasoning that change is good, but only if follows the old saying: first, do no harm.

And, unfortunately, if the Commission pursues this proposal, it will lead to harm on several levels and in several community circles, not to mention the harm to the finances of all levels of governance and the community organizations.

In the most obvious example, you propose to sever half of the Town of Tecumseh, with residents finding themselves in a riding that does not even carry the name of their town, while at the same time, doubling the distance they must travel to the office of their Member of Parliament. The public transit connections between this severed area of Tecumseh and the MPs office are non-existent, presenting severe barriers to seniors and those Canadians with disabilities.

Furthermore, having the Town of Tecumseh as one cohesive unit under one Member of Parliament simplifies communication and collaboration between MP and the Town's administration.

The proposal, to sever the neighbourhood of Olde Walkerville out of Windsor-Tecumseh - this is the area west of Walker Road - totally ignores and negates the near 60 year history of Walkerville as part of various iterations of Windsor-Tecumseh that date back to 1968.

The changes proposed to Windsor-West have the same hallmarks of complete disregard to the political history of the region, and to its current political, socio and economic challenges, and plans of the national scale, just to name a couple; building the new international border crossing, working toward opening a second in Canada, Ojibway National Urban Park. The proposed changes, if implemented, would mean a disruption to an existing successful cooperation on these portfolios between all three levels of government, championed by two MPs.

All these changes, disruptions and confusions to be imposed on the residents, local governments and non-government organizations for the sake of change, to satisfy a numbers game, and in the end not even accomplishing the main goal.

The right tool makes the job easy, and without admitting that with the present, and the forecasted growth of the area, we are underrepresented, and our MPs are given unprecedented workload, comparing to other Electoral Districts, and the only solution to this issue is at least one new Electoral District, and then we can talk about the restructuring the boundaries of the Electoral Districts in our Southwestern Ontario with gains and satisfaction to all citizens.

But, we realize, this pressing matter is not the current task of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission of Ontario.

Thank you for listening.

Our Best Regards,

Ph. XXX XXX XXXX