WHAT is Kenora Conservative MP Greg Rickford talking about? Does he really want to provoke Northern Ontarians with ridiculous theories? Can he not recognize a legitimate concern and respond to it reasonably, even if it does come from the NDP? Does the Official Opposition not warrant respect from a government member when it raises an issue involving his region?
The government says it plans to change some riding boundaries to better reflect changing population trends. The NDP worries this might result in the loss of seats in Northern Ontario which recorded a 1.4-per-cent decline in people in 2010, according to the new census. The drop is most pronounced here in the Northwest which shrank by 4.7 per cent.
In the Commons Wednesday, Nickel Belt MP Claude Gravelle introduced an act to amend the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, saying Northern Ontario should not be short-changed when the government changes riding boundaries “to suit their electoral needs.”
He and other northern New Democrats can read the numbers. While the North lost people, Ontario as a whole grew by 5.7 per cent. Much of that growth occurred in the so-called 905 belt around Toronto where the Conservatives did not do well in the last election. Creating 15 more seats in Ontario gives the Tories a chance to win them.
With the NDP holding a majority of the seats in the North, Gravelle’s bill seeks to protect the 10 that are here in a region larger in size than all but two provinces. Northern Ontario already lost a seat in the last round of electoral boundary changes in 2004.
That’s the history and the concern was repeated this week by Thunder Bay-area New Democrats Bruce Hyer and John Rafferty who earned a measure of fame Wednesday as they stood, alone among New Democrats, to support the Conservative bill to scrap the long-gun registry detested by their many hunting constituents.
Rickford chose to characterize the NDP ridings bill as an effort to “deflect” attention away from the long-gun vote which divided Hyer and Rafferty from their colleagues.
Rickford might have acknowledged the fact the pair supported his party over theirs instead of casting aspersions on their motives.
Maybe Rickford resorted to hyperbole rather than respond to Gravelle’s invitation to join the NDP in supporting a bill to protect political representation of Northern Ontario. But then, one cannot imagine Rickford breaking ranks in the interest of Northerners the way Hyer and Rafferty did.