Are rural ridings at risk again?

The opposition is raising the alarm that rural ridings in low population areas of the province could be at risk, after the government failed to pass legislation prior to the closure of the fall session of the Legislature.

The problematic issue of representation has been a bit of a stone in the shoe for the Campbell Liberals in the last few months, with Northerners reacting with outrage at the prospect of losing seats for the benefit of voter rich southern BC.

The government had thought it had solved the problem when it threw the BC Electoral Commission for a loop with its edict to keep three northern ridings, while adding eight more seats to the Legislature, but that plan died on the order list with the closure of the fall session.

So now the mess is back in the hands of the Electoral Commission which is expected to announce its revised plans of consultation in the next few weeks, leading to the possibility of more debate, more public sessions and maybe one day more seats or at least a preservation of what already exists in at risk ridings.

The Daily News had North Coast MLA Gary Coon’s views on the controversy as the front page story in Monday’s paper.

LIBERAL U-TURN THREATENING RURAL RIDINGS SAYS COONS

By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Monday, December 03, 2007

Pages one and three

After pledging reform before outraged northern municipalities earlier this year, the B.C. Liberals have now dropped legislation that would have safeguarded the size of northern provincial ridings.

Due to the failure to pass legislation, the proposal to eliminate one riding in the north and expand the geographic size of all three ridings in the Northwest is once again being considered by the B.C. Electoral Boundaries Commission.

The Liberals promised legislation that would amend the mandate of the Electoral Boundaries Commission after rural municipalities and MLAs, including those in the North, protested at hearings in Prince George.

However, the Liberal government said there was no time left before the fall session wrapped last week to debate the bill and said it was not willing to use a closure motion to ensure passage.
The bill would have restored three rural B. C. ridings that the commission had recommended should be eliminated and ultimately would have added a total of eight new seats to the 79 seat legislature.

The NDP says the issue for them is rural seats and the independence of the commission.
Opposition House Leader Mike Farnworth said the B. C. Liberals have interfered with the process from the outset.

He claimed the Liberals let the bill die in order to save face and not look like they have made a heavy-handed attempt to influence the work of the independent commission.

“The government could have acted to protect northern and rural areas without directly interfering with the Electoral Boundaries Commission,” said North Coast MLA Gary Coons, who noted that the province could have given the commission special direction to protect rural ridings.

“Instead, they saw the rural outcry about the lost seats as an opportunity to gerrymander the electoral boundaries to their own benefit.”

The commission was originally given the mandate to add up to six seats in addition to the 79 we already have. It was not specifically mandated to preserve rural representation.

“The government could have instructed the commission to broaden their interpretation of the very special circumstances which allow deviation from the provincial electoral quotient,” said Coons.

“They could have instructed the commission to protect rural representation as part of their original mandate; they knew rural British Columbia would lose under the existing mandate and they didn’t care.”

The B. C. Electoral Boundaries Commission is expected to announce in the coming weeks the date on which it will resume hearings on its original proposal.

There was a hearing scheduled for Terrace that was cancelled following the announcement of new legislation.