The new federal electoral map proposed last week by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Saskatchewan has drawn the ire of a local MP.

Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre Member of Parliament Tom Lukiwski said the new map creates an “us versus them mentality” between constituents in urban and rural ridings, not to mention increasing the size of the rural districts to such a point that it will reduce the effectiveness of a MP to be responsible for their whole area of coverage.

“The best way to have representation, effective representation in Saskatchewan, is to have members of parliament to have both portions of urban and rural in their ridings where possible, because the economy of Saskatchewan is so intertwined in the rural and urban centres,” said Lukiwski, Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader.

“It just makes sense to have MPs who are totally conversant and knowledgeable about issues in both the urban and rural portions of the province.”

The proposed electoral map up for consideration at public hearings this fall is set to establish two exclusively urban electoral districts in Regina and three in Saskatoon. The remaining nine ridings will remain primarily rural, including Lukiwski’s.

The difference is Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre would almost double in size taking over the majority of the Blackstrap riding currently held by Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, as well as an area around and including Moose Jaw, currently named as the Palliser riding and held by Ray Boughen.

“Constituents want to personally meet with Members of Parliament,” said Lukiwski. “They want members to attend certain events in their home communities and by increasing the size of the rural riding by such a dramatic amount, it really would reduce the amount MPs could spend in all the areas of their riding.”

Under the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, every 10 years in Canada since Confederation, an electoral boundaries commission is set up in each province to redraw electoral districts according to population shifts. This is done after each census is completed, the last being in 2011, which noted Saskatchewan’s population has increased from 978,933 to 1,033,381 over the last decade.

John Courtney, a member of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Saskatchewan, said the new electoral map was proposed due to the change in population densities in areas within the province. He said communities of interest, historical factors, transportation lines and natural geographic boundaries such as rivers and mountains are also taken into consideration when creating a new map.

“Some areas obviously grow, some decline, others remain stable and some parts of the country are overrepresented and some are underrepresented,” said Courtney. “It’s simply to try to keep, in tandem with the population shifts, the parliamentary seat distribution pretty well equal from decade to decade.”

To read more please see the August 13 print edition of The Davidson Leader.