Exclusively rural Flamborough ward is coming apart
Ward 14 Coun. Robert Pasuta unhappy with OMB ruling
Farmers may feed cities but based on the Ontario Municipal Board’s ward boundary ruling it looks like cities politically devour farmers.
The most lamentable change in the board’s redrawing of Hamilton’s electoral map is the elimination of the current Ward 14 in west Flamborough, effectively shutting down the one voice around the city council horseshoe which speaks exclusively for rural residents.
Under the plan, the ward will be wiped out and partitioned between Ancaster and Dundas, reshaping the unique agricultural community into a mixed urban-rural precinct. In its stead a new ward will sprout on the Mountain.
Ward 14 comprises more than one-third of Hamilton’s total land mass and accounts for a big portion of the $1 billion plus economic activity which agriculture annually contributes to Hamilton’s economy.
For the past 11 years Coun. Robert Pasuta, a farmer himself, has been the voice of that community, which since amalgamation has become part of the flavour and fabric of the
city.
Pasuta’s updates to council on the state of asparagus, corn, and soybean crops are a quirky but restorative reminder of how singularly blessed Hamilton is, how just a short distance from the choking traffic and concrete of the big city the elemental forces of nature still call the tune that people’s lives and livelihoods dance to.
The weather and soil will remain if the board decision stands. An independent political voice for farmers will not.
Word of the board decision knocked the wind out of Pasuta. He’s got his legs back under him now. If legal grounds permit, he firmly supports appealing the ruling.
“It’s not about me; it’s about the people,” he says.
Unfortunately for the people of west Flamborough, there simply isn’t enough of them in the rational eyes of the board to survive as a standalone political entity.
Throughout the ward boundary debate — with all its dithering, poor judgment, and feeble compromises by city councillors — Ward 14 has been a poster child for reform.
Though geographically the largest ward, demographically it’s the smallest with about 17,000 people. Ward 7 on the central Mountain, on the other hand, has about 62,000 residents. But both wards have one councillor, one vote.
The board’s decision to enforce the boundary changes recommended by the city’s own consultants but ignored by council has ended that disparity (and other less dramatic ones) in the name of greater parity.
In making its ruling, the board concluded that council was set on preserving the postamalgamation status quo that maintains the split of urban versus suburban/rural interests, plus the minority interests of keeping Ward 14 exclusively rural.
But the board argued that times change and council’s “overarching emphasis” on protecting a rural voice on council needs to be expanded to recognize other community and minority interests.
For example, the board heard arguments that the protection of rural interests has the potential to dilute the voting power of visible minorities in inner city wards.
According to a McMaster University researcher, inner city Wards 2 and 5 have visible minority populations of 27 per cent and 20.5 per cent respectively compared to Ward 14 which has a visible minority population of three per cent.
Therefore, the researcher suggests, visible minorites in the inner city may be more poorly represented than nonvisible minorities in the rural suburban wards.
It’s an interesting talking point which certainly broadens the OMB principle of protecting communities of interest beyond traditional geographic, historical and socioeconomic grounds. But unless visible minorities vote as racial blocs the relevance isn’t clear.
After all, we’re not talking American politics here. Isn’t a Hamiltonian, a Hamiltonian? Isn’t the ballot box colour blind?
Regardless, the board is “satisfied” that the rural voice will continue to enjoy effective representation after Ward 14 is split up.
Perhaps it will. But surely a sense of unity and community feeling will be diminished when one voice becomes two.