Monday, November 19, 2007
Harper Screws Ontario’s 905
There are currently 4 plus million living in the 905 and there are currently 32 seats for an average of just over 127,000 people per riding. There are 6 ridings with over a 140,000 people in the 905, Bramalea - Gore - Malton (152,698) Brampton West (170,422) Halton (151,943), Mississauga - Erindale (143,361) Oak Ridges - Markham (169,642) and Vaughan (154,206). By contrast there are 4.5 million people in Sask, Man, NWT, Nuv, Yuk, PEI, NS, NFLD, and NB and there are 62 seats for an average of 72,000 people per riding. Morever, there is but one riding, Selkirk Interlake (90,807), with over 90,000 people. Given current growth trends, there will be more people in the 905 than the aforementioned provinces and territories by 2011 and by 2011 there will be nearly 145,000 people per 905 riding. The growth rate in the 905 is a staggering 13.5%; the growth rate for the other is virtually non existent. The population Canadians 6 smallest provinces and its 3 territories increased by a mere 25,000 between 2001 and 2006; in other words, given current growth rates there will be half as many people per riding as in the 905. Is this fair? Of course not. And it is ridiculous to think that a mere 10 seats for all of Ontario will not come close to solving the problem.
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7 comments:
It would be nice if our own premier recognized the disparity between 416 and 905 first. He could always add seats first.
Funny how everyone thinks 905 is just the burbs - I live in a 905 area which is rural - east of Oshawa.
Everyone forgets us - we do exist and we are also 905'rs
The USA has many problems (they should go back to hand counted ballots) in their electoral system. I believe one feature is very good. Their 435 districts for congress are redistributed after each census (by constitutional law) to balance out the one person/one vote goal.
(They have been hopelessly gerrymander-ing their numerically balanced districts, but that's another (horror) story.)
Dante is correct, McG should fix the rural/suburban/urban imbalances that disenfranchise (especially) urban voters.
That said, every Ontarian (esp ALL our MPs ... hear that van Loan?) should get worked up over this latest Tory attempt to disenfranchise their opponents.
Let's see here. For 13 years the Liberal Party of Canada imported people from Asia, Middle East and opther countries.
Why did the Liberals do that? So they could all flood to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and vote Liberal.
The Liberals rely on immigrants to win while the Conservatives rely on native Canadians to win.
So because the Liberals imported people who would vote Liberal means they should get no seats ,period.
If the Liberals imported Europeans or South Americans or Australians or New Zealanders them I wouldn't have a problem with Ontario having more seats.
The Liberals destroyed this country by importing muslims and other foreigners who don't like our way of life, but welfare and health care instead.
THe Liberal Party of Canada is a disgrace and so are its cult followers.
In fairness, it seems to me that the relevant population figure should be number of Canadian citizens in each riding, not number of residents. According to link,
we can figure that about 10% of the GTA population would be composed of non-citizen immigrants. This might well be higher in the fastest growing ridings, and so would have a significant effect on your numbers.
"In fairness, it seems to me that the relevant population figure should be number of Canadian citizens in each riding, not number of residents. According to link,"
The problem is where do you stop. Why not count just those that can vote. Surely landed immigrants and kids are in the same boat. Both will have the potential to vote -- just not right now. Given that 60% of the population of Nunavut is under 30%, the numbers there will surely take a hit.
Actually, no, landed immigrants and kids are not the same. Many landed immigrants never become citizens.
But I certainly wouldn't oppose children who are also Canadian citizens getting the vote - cast on their behalf by their parents, of course.
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