Presentation to Nova Scotia Electoral Boundaries Commission

Kevin Lacey, Canadian Taxpayers Federation

August 15, 2012

I wanted to thank the committee again for allowing my organization to speak to you directly regarding the commission’s latest interim report.

For the past twelve months our Federation has attended all of the public sessions regarding the electoral boundaries, as we wanted to see two outcomes in the final report.

The elimination of special status legislative seats for designated minorities; and

The number of MLAs in the legislature be reduced.

Given these principals our Federation would like to make three very short comments regarding the interim report.

First, let me say that this is a report that our Federation feels Nova Scotians should support.

We believe this report respects the important principal of voter parity. Although, not perfect (and no model can be), the way the ridings are currently drawn ensures that each region of the province in our opinion is treated fairly and meets the sprit of the terms of reference the legislative committee set back in April.

Second, we would like to have seen a further reduction in the number of MLAs. The commission report says that it chose not to make major cuts in the number of politicians in the legislature because it would affect working of a Westminster style of government and would make larger ridings difficult to represent in rural areas.

But there are two counter arguments we’d like to propose to the commission.

There are provinces that operate with fewer than 52 seats and the Westminster system still works. For example Newfoundland and Labrador has 48 seats, and has a very strong government caucus, opposition and working legislative committees.

As for the argument in the interim report that MLAs shouldn’t represent larger geographic area, this is entirely subjective. Different provinces, and different constituencies across Canada are of different size and population. But Nova Scotia by comparisons to Sask and Manitoba has much smaller ridings in rural areas than those two provinces, yet the voter parity is roughly similar. And there are little to no arguments in those provinces about the size of ridings and their affect on the ability of MLAs to represent larger ridings.

Let me just add that I understand that the commission will not radically deviate from its current report when it makes its final recommendations, and we were pleased by even the reduction of one seat reduction.  

But we also want to make the point because if there are opportunities for more reductions as you redraw your boundaries, that those should be made to ensure that we should do with as few MLAs as possible.

Third, elimination of special designated seats for minority representation is an important move to ensure that the democratic principal of all voters being equal be maintained.

We supported the move by the legislative committee to remove protection from the terms of reference and we believe that this is an important step to ensure that all Nova Scotians are represented equally in the legislature, and treated equally outside the legislature.

I know there have been much debate from special interest groups on both sides, but the most important principal of our democratic system is to ensure that all Nova Scotians equally, no matter the cultural make up.

Again let me say that overall there is lots in the this report and is a good report that unless there are radical changes I hope the legislature would pass in the fall sitting. 

Thank you for your time…