Stone said the legislation includes lifting protection of 17 ridings in the B.C. Interior, which he said is “bad news” for people living beyond Hope due to population decline in some areas, compared to population increases in the Lower Mainland. With that, he said, is the potential for recommendation from the boundaries commission to merge ridings in areas with decreased population. “What we’re talking about here potentially happening is the merging of existing ridings into new ridings that will be larger in geographic size than many large European countries,” he said. Stone said representation by population is a fundamental democratic principle, but must be balanced by recognition of large geographic areas in British Columbia and the rights of people to have effective representation. He said if every riding was to have the same number of voters, a significant reduction in ridings and MLAs would come from outside of the Lower Mainland and those elected would be respo
New electoral boundaries bill could unfairly affect rural voters, say B.C. Liberals
The B.C. Liberals say an amendment to the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act, introduced by the NDP, could unfairly affect voters in rural areas.
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Posted: May 12, 2021 7:09 PM PT | Last Updated: May 13
Right now, there are 17 protected ridings in the North, the Kootenays and the Central Interior.(Elections BC)
B.C. legislature. (BC Gov)
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Bill 7, the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act, could reduce the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly from the province’s northern region.
Attorney General David Eby introduced the bill on Monday. Every two general elections, the Electoral Boundaries Commission evaluates the boundaries and the number of constituents in each riding, making boundary changes to try and evenly distribute residents among MLAs.
This process doesn’t work the same way in rural British Columbia. Take Peace River North MLA Dan Davies, for example. ),whenLoaded(initFlexitive);
“My riding right now is almost 170,000 square kilometres. It’s a challenge, but I manage. Under this new proposal, we could be looking at super ridings. Three or four MLAs would represent the entire northern two-thirds of our province. Can you imagine representing from Fort St. John to Prince George and all the way north,” says Davies.
B.C.’s population has grown by half a million people since changes were last made to electoral ridings in 2015, Attorney General David Eby said when presenting amendments to the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act. “These amendments are intended to equip the commission with the discretion and flexibility it needs to make recommendations for electoral district boundaries that balance the principle of representation by population with other effective representation concerns,” Eby said. The new law would overturn legislation passed by the Liberals in 2014 which prevented the commission members from reducing representation in the North, Columbia-Kootenay and Cariboo-Thompson regions, creating 17 protected enclaves in B.C.
B.C. to add up to 6 new MLAs next election â but seats could be reduced in the Interior
A new electoral redistricting bill in B.C. could potentially reduce the number of MLAs elected in much of the provinceâs Interior.Â
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Requirement put in under Liberals that any redistricting not remove seats in certain areas could be removed
Posted: May 11, 2021 7:00 AM PT | Last Updated: May 11
Forty-eight of B.C. s 87 electoral districts are in the Lower Mainland.(Elections BC)