An important line in the Premier's news release deserves
more attention. The release promised that the legislation
to be introduced will use the regional boundaries already
established by the Commission. The Commission devoted a
chapter in its Preliminary Report to regions; it pointed
out that since 1966 five of BC's seven boundary commissions
used the concept of regions, although they all stressed
that decisions are made on a constituency by constituency
basis. While regions embody some common sense elements that
unite different areas of the province, ultimately they are
arbitrary groups of constituencies, or parts of former constituencies,
that change with each commission.
The
Commission's preliminary report divided Yale-Lillooet between
three regions: Cariboo-Thompson, the Okanagan and the Fraser
Valley. By supporting the Commission's regions as part of
his scheme to protect rural representation, Campbell stuck
his finger in Harry
Lali's eye. Of course, it is not just the incumbent
MLA who is injured by Campbell's meddling; anyone who supports
the principle of one-person-one-vote has to object to his
interference with the independent commission. Splitting
Yale-Lillooet means that part of the riding will be over-represented
as a rural constituency while other parts will be treated
as urban or dense constituencies with population to MLA
ratios at or above the provincial average (the quotient).
It is
possible that the Premier's news release was mistaken. Vaughn
Palmer pointed to the contradictions it contains with respect
to the number of MLAs. It says the next Parliament will
have 87 members, up 8 from the current 79, but it also says
that growing regions will get only 5 additional seats. Perhaps
the Premier's drafters were also confused about the regional
boundaries used by the Commission; if not, voters in Yale-Lillooet
should be given clear notice how Campbell's rural rescue
plan treats them.
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