BC NDP says Liberals interfering with BC electoral boundaries
Posted February 26, 2014 5:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The BC NDP is accusing the Liberals of interfering with provincial electoral boundaries for their own gain.
University of the Fraser Valley political scientist Hamish Telford echoes the concern and says it’s commonly referred to as gerrymandering.
“All the parties know where they’re strong and where they’re weak because we’ve had a hundred years of polling information in this province. So, if you draw the boundaries in one particular way it would benefit one party, if you drew them in another particular way it would benefit another party,” explains Telford. “We’ve tried to get away from that in Canada and by and large we’ve done a really good job in the last 50 years by giving the job of drawing riding boundaries to independent commission.”
He says a bill being looked at in the legislature may be providing a little more direction to the electoral commission than it should.
It looks to protect some 17 seats even if they have populations that are too small to justify the number of MLAs in the area.
“It appears the government may be giving the commission too much direction and not giving them the independence to establish the ridings themselves,” adds Telford.
