Atamanenko Comments on Proposed Election Boundary Changes
By Bill Metcalfe
In a story in the Nelson Daily on July 5, we outlined the changes to federal electoral ridings proposed by the 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for British Columbia.
Proposed changes would see Nelson, Salmo, and areas A, B, C, and G of the Regional District of Central Kootenay moved to the federal Columbia-Kootenay riding.
Those areas are currently all in the BC Southern Interior riding represented by Alex Atamanenko of the NDP. The change would mean that residents of the North Shore would be in a different riding from Nelson.
“It’s a numbers game,” Atamanenko told The Nelson Daily today about the new map. “They are trying to juggle population numbers.” He said there are other criteria the commission could use, including historical identity and ease of accessibility to the MP.
Breaking up a “tri-city community”
“We have been together, we are communities of interest, we have got Nelson, Trail and Castlegar who work together as a tri-city community. People identify with that, and they want to chop off a major community and move it over there.
“And accessibility of the MP is an issue, what if people in Nelson have their MP in Cranbrook or Revelstoke, what are they going to do?”
“Highway 3 unites us”
The proposed new boundaries would see Princeton taken out of BC Southern Interior and Penticton added to it. “There is a lot of affinity between Princeton and the rest of the Similkameen Valley,” says Atamanenko. “This proposal would chop it off at Keremeos. There is a lot that unites us along Highway 3, and there is more that unites Princeton with Nelson than Princeton with Penticton. Penticton for our purposes is a big city, it has different needs.”
Conservative MP agrees
Conservative MP Dan Arbus, who represents Okanagan-Coquihalla in which Penticton now sits, agrees with Atamanenko. He told CBC Radio today that he disagrees with the Penticton- Princeton switch. “It is important that the riding boundary generally represent how people travel,” he said, “so they can more easily access their MP and I am not entirely certain that has been achieved here. However, this is supposed to be about what citizens think, and they have the opportunity to make suggestions and I hope they do so.”
Residents of Nelson can have their say at a hearing in Nelson on October 2. People who want to speak to the commission must register ahead of time.
The Electoral Boundaries Commission is independent of government and reports to Elections Canada.
“It’s not about politics”
Asked if he was concerned that moving the left-leaning city of Nelson out of his riding would affect his electoral results, Atamanenko said, “I am trying to stay away from the politics of it. The other riding is a Conservative riding because a Conservative has won it for the last while, but then this one used to be Conservative too. It does not mean that everybody in every community over there is Conservative. The point is the idea of cohesiveness. The idea is to keep things logical for the people these things are set up for.”
The Nelson Daily attempted unsuccessfully to contact Nelson Mayor John Dooley for his views on the proposed changes.
Comments