Discussion · Government Orders
Steven MacKinnon Liberal
“Our voting ridings are divided fairly. Large rural ridings can be hard to represent, but every person's vote should have equal power.”
“Mr. Speaker, as the member may know, there is a law in place that establishes the number of seats, how they are distributed and so on. I think he said there are about 115,000 people in his riding, which is about the same number as in my own riding of Gatineau. For the most part, I think that with respect to ridings, other than the constitutional obligations we have at the founding of the country, we have achieved a very good balance and a very good way of dividing constituencies. That, of course, means that Yellowhead is a very large riding because of its vast, beautiful spaces, with people distributed all around the territory. That is, of course, a challenge for anyone who seeks to represent that incredible part of our country, but it is one we need to continue to address by following the Supreme Court’s guidance that, while we should deviate a little bit, one vote in one place should equal what one vote in another place is worth.”
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Mr. Speaker, as the member may know, there is a law in place that establishes the number of seats, how they are distributed and so on. I think he said there are about 115,000 people in his riding, which is about the same number as in my own riding of Gatineau. For the most part, I think that with respect to ridings, other than the constitutional obligations we have at the founding of the country, we have achieved a very good balance and a very good way of dividing constituencies. That, of course, means that Yellowhead is a very large riding because of its vast, beautiful spaces, with people distributed all around the territory. That is, of course, a challenge for anyone who seeks to represent that incredible part of our country, but it is one we need to continue to address by following the Supreme Court’s guidance that, while we should deviate a little bit, one vote in one place should equal what one vote in another place is worth.