We don’t need more seats

Re Ontario adds more seats to Queen’s Park, Dec. 5 I see that Ontario is going to add 15 more seats to the legislature to keep the number the same as the House of Commons plus one. This means that each member will represent an average of approximately 90,000 constituents.

In Ottawa, the number is approximately one per 106,000 constituents. By contrast, the U.S. House of Representatives has a ratio of approximately one per 570,000 constituents. If Washington were to be the same as Ottawa, they would need a 3,500-seat arena. Don’t you think we are over-represented?

About 150 years ago, when it might take three days on a horse to cover 60 miles and a riding might have only a few thousand people, small square mile ridings made sense. But with good roads, cars, telephone and the Internet, they do not.

If changes are not made to reverse this trend, there is a good chance that in the near future, we will be paying more for retired and defeated member pensions than we are for those sitting. Robert Drummond, Exeter, Ont.