… About Rural Voting Power

By Bill Bennett

Kootenay East MLA

1. After every second provincial election, the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act requires government to strike a Commission to evaluate B.C.’s 85 constituencies. The main consideration is the ratio of population to MLA or “representation by population.” This process typically results in fewer rural ridings.

2. While ‘rep by pop’ is a key democratic principle, we believe an MLA must also have a realistic, practical possibility of representing people in a large, sparsely populated Riding. Otherwise, the number of rural ridings in B.C. will diminish and rural voting power weakens.

3.  The B.C. government has released a white paper with proposals for changing the law. Our proposals would preserve northern and rural ridings. Please let us know, before January 15, 2014, what you think of our proposals by emailing: [email protected]:

Further information can be found at http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation/ebca/index.htm.

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