NDP makes bid to quash riding merger
New boundaries would mean loss of at least one MP for party
OTTAWA — The federal New Democratic Party is making a last- ditch bid to convince the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for B. C. to reverse its unpopular decision to merge North Burnaby and North Vancouver into a single riding.
The NDP, which stands to lose at least one of its 12 B. C. MPs as a result of the Lower Mainland riding changes, argues that more than the Burrard Inlet separates the two communities. There are also deep political, demographic and cultural differences in the proposed new Burnaby North-Seymour riding.
The official Opposition is asking a parliamentary committee to recommend a reversal to the independent commission.
“There is no need to rip apart and forcibly join two communities that don’t have a community of interest between them,” Peter Julian, one of three New Democrat MPs objecting to the proposal, told the committee last week.
The committee is taking a final look at the once- a- decade riding redistribution across Canada based on population growth and shifts. B. C.’ s 4.4 million total in the 2011 census has resulted in it increasing its seat total in the House of Commons from 36 to 42.
The commission makes its final decisions in June.
One of the commission’s challenges is population growth on the North Shore. With the target for B. C. ridings set at 104,763 residents, the panel was confronted with two fast- growing, high- income — and Conservativefriendly — ridings over that mark. West Vancouver- Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country had a population in 2011 of 133,910, while North Vancouver had 127,339. Burnaby- Douglas had 123,275.
The commission’s solution was to distribute part of BurnabyDouglas to neighbouring ridings, and match the North Burnaby part with part of the old North Vancouver riding.
The NDP says North Vancouver, with its higher- income and less ethnically- diverse population, doesn’t have a “community of interest” with Burnaby — using a term commissioners across Canada are required by federal legislation to consider.
Kennedy Stewart, a rookie MP who narrowly won BurnabyDouglas, would lose if the 2011 election results were transposed onto the Burnaby North- Seymour riding.
He said high real estate prices mean the MP would have to choose which side of the Second Narrows Bridge to locate a constituency office. If the office is on the North Shore, he said, many lower- income North Burnaby residents will lose easy access to their MP.
The MP acknowledged Tuesday that there is a partisan dynamic at play.
“Look, people who are low income and taking transit are naturally going to gravitate to the NDP, that’s true,” he said. “But we shouldn’t let that mask the real concerns of these folks.”
The commission, in its January report, didn’t deny the move is unpopular — citing a “distinct lack of enthusiasm” on both sides of Burrard Inlet.
But it concluded there has to be reconfigured districts.
North Vancouver’s Conservative MP Andrew Saxton, who will run in the reconfigured North Vancouver, said he will go along with what the independent commission decides.
“I don’t like to see North Vancouver broken up any more than anybody else does,” he said. “However the issue is, the population has grown so much ( on the North Shore) that it has to be divided up somewhere.”