The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission has proposed a new electoral map, that would change all 14 federal ridings in Saskatchewan, creating three urban-specific ridings in Saskatoon and two in Regina, and lumping the rest of the province together into seemingly random districts.
Humboldt, for example, would no longer be located in the Saskatoon-Humboldt riding. That riding would no longer exist.
Instead, Humboldt would be grouped in with Kindersley and Rosetown.
What?
Our own MP, Brad Trost, said the proposed changes didn't impress him, and I have to agree with him.
The riding Kindersley-Rosetown-Humboldt would stretch from the Alberta border and take a swoop north of Saskatoon before ending around Humboldt.
It's one of the dumbest things I've heard of in a long time.
While it might seem to those sitting in Ottawa that Humboldt and Kindersley have a lot in common, and a list, point by point, of all the attributes of each community would confirm that.
But Humboldt has nothing to do with Kindersley on a trade basis. The only time people from Humboldt go to Kindersley is when they pass through on the way to Calgary. And I don't know of any reason someone from Kindersley would be even passing through Humboldt, unless the Klippers were playing the Broncos in the playoffs. Our communities simply don't connect.
And not only would the city of Humboldt be lumped in with two other communities across the province, it would be located in a different riding than Burr and Lanigan to the south, and Englefeld and Watson to the east.
Lanigan and the entire area south of Humboldt would be in the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan riding. Everything to the east of Humboldt and north of Wynyard would be in the Yorkton-Melville riding, and everything south of Wynyard and east of Hwy. 6 would be in the Regina Qu'Appelle riding.
How the heck would that work?
If these changes go through, three MPs would have to be invited to the regional meetings that are occurring more and more often.
On the other hand, three MPs would be charged with dealing with the issues of the area. Having that much representation in Ottawa would be great, if the regions weren't so huge that the activity in this area would likely fall off the radars of all three MPs.
To anyone living in Saskatchewan, these ridings are just nonsensical. Does this committee in Ottawa have any idea how big Saskatchewan is, and how much distance there is between the communities on this map? How often would an MP show up at anything in Humboldt if his home base is in Rosetown? Once a year, maybe? The distance is simply too far to travel on a regular or even a semi-regular basis. And if that's the case, how on earth could they represent the interests of this area in Ottawa? They would have no idea what those interests were.
If the rural ridings need to be bigger, and the federal government believes Saskatchewan needs urban-only ridings (something I don't agree with at all), then at least split the map into something that's less ridiculous.
Put Humboldt in with all the communities from Nokomis to Melfort, Bruno to Wadena. That's a natural trading area. Putting us in with Yorkton would even make more sense than lumping us with Kindersley.
The way it is now, it's like they forgot about Humboldt, and threw us into the mix at the last minute. Or it's like they don't care where the lines fall - it's only Saskatchewan after all.
It's up to us to make the decision-makers care about the problems with this map. We need to tell them that their map is crap.
