To the Editor:
Once every decade, Canada conducts a census. And that automatically triggers a fresh look at the boundaries of all federal "electoral districts" across the country to account for population changes and safeguard the basic democratic principle of "rep by pop".
The process is managed, according to law, by independent, non-partisan commissions set up in each province.
Their mandate is NOT to "gerrymander" (i.e., manipulate) the boundaries to favour the government or any political party. Their purpose is to draw an electoral map that provides fair, effective representation.
In Saskatchewan, the current commission includes a Queen's Bench Judge, a political science professor-emeritus from the University of Saskatchewan, and the President of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
They've spent the last few months studying the existing boundaries that divide our province into 14 federal ridings. That total number of Saskatchewan seats in Parliament will stay the same. But significant boundary adjustments are necessary because the current configuration has been in place for nearly 20 years with virtually no updating.
The Commission looked at our far-flung geography, and our population growth which has been significant lately, especially in Regina and Saskatoon.
These two cities now account for more than 40 per cent of Saskatchewan's people, but there's not a single riding today - not one - that fully reflects that reality of increasing urbanization. All 14 current constituencies are either predominantly rural or an awkward rural-urban blend.
The commission's mandate is to adjust the boundaries to achieve roughly equal population numbers in each seat, to keep distances manageable, and to reflect a community of common interests among the people in each seat (like, for example, the growing number of distinctive urban issues that uniquely affect our two largest cities as they each approach the quarter-million mark.).
There can always be fine-tuning, but the proposed new map seems more fair and balanced than the old one. It provides for three constituencies that are rural-urban blends, five that are predominantly urban and six that are predominantly rural.
That more accurately reflects Saskatchewan's reality.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
