Saturday, September 8, 2007

Carole James and the Electoral Boundary Commission

Yesterday, I recieved a newsletter from the NDP where she wants to know where the Premier (Hon. Gordon Campbell) is on the Preliminary Report of the Electoral Boundary Commission. She suggested that because the BC Liberal Party chose not to make a presentation to the Electoral Boundary Commission, while her party made a presentation to the Electoral Boundary Commission during its' 1st Round of Public Hearings that it is another example of the Campbell government abandoning Rural BC. Then she went on to cite all of the things that the Campbell government did during its' 1st Term (2001-2005) including closing of schools and imposing a police tax on small communities to pay for Rural RCMP services.

While I could go on all the things the NDP did to Rural BC during the 90's, I will say that I'm disappointed that the NDP chose to get politically involved in, what is generally a apolitical process. In fact, during the last review of the BC Electoral Distict Map for the Legislature, the NDP Cabinet of the day used its' power to protect ridings' held by Cabinet Ministers like the riding of Kamloops held by then NDP Minister Cathy McGregor. Her riding was scheduled to be divided up. So, when it comes to review mechanisms like the Electoral Boundary Commission, we should allow them to do their work without interference from political bodies, like the BC-NDP Party or the BC Liberal Party and allow individual BC'ers to state directly to the Electoral Boundary Commission on how they feel on the proposed new electoral district map and allow the process to unfold as it will.

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