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HomeNewsReducing northern ridings "unacceptable" say BC Liberals

Reducing northern ridings "unacceptable" say BC Liberals

Public hearings looking at a possible change to provincial electoral boundaries will be held in Prince George this Thursday afternoon.

BC Electoral Boundaries Commission holds the hearings after every two elections, looking at population changes, but also taking public feedback.

Liberal MLA John Rustad (pictured) with Nechako Lakes says they have been told that the Electoral Boundaries Commission is reporting that keeping eight ridings in the north is becoming too hard to maintain, but Rustad says any cuts to our ridings are unacceptable.

“We believe that we should have the representation  that we have in Northern BC,” he says. “We introduced legislation last spring to consider Northern BC as its own electoral unit, so that we’re able to preserve those ridings.”

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“It’s extremely disappointing the opposition is opposed to this,” Rustad says. “Clearly, they don’t understand the need for that representation in those ridings.”

However, Stikine NDP MLA Doug Donaldson says that the legislation preserves Liberal ridings, “For example, two constituencies in Kamloops are protected and I just don’t think that’s justified in protecting our rural ridings.”

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“In effect, what [the Liberals] did was, they said ‘You can’t mess with 17 of the 85 constituencies, but unfortunately, they kept ones in Kamloops,” he says “Which I think bears no resemblance to a place like Stikine.”
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