Political News Affecting St. John's
A companion thread to Jeddy's Economic News one.
In this thread, please post any political news that affects St. John's - excluding news related to the municipal election campaign, which has its own thread by PoscStudent. |
Liberals, NDP call for fewer seats in House of Assembly
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Eastern School District too Big?
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I don't know if we are actually over-represented by 48 MHAs in comparison to other jurisdictions, but I do know that the consolidation of the province's population on the Avalon Peninsula probably means that some of the large, rural districts could be combined.
Here is what we have right now. Newfoundland and Labrador: http://i.imgur.com/39llQXZ.png Northeast Avalon: http://i.imgur.com/W9vG0IC.png In my opinion, the south coast of Newfoundland, from Channel-Port-aux-Basques to the Burin Peninsula, has FAR too many districts for such a small population. |
The last post in this thread is interesting considering it's currently a hot topic. I don't know if St. John's will be affected by this or not. It's currently the topic on CBC Cross Talk and someone who previously ran for the Liberals is saying that the seats in St. John's should be cut. I remember seeing Yvonne Jones question one time whether St. John's should have fewer seats.
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The smaller districts by sheer numbers seem to be South Coast and Labrador. It would make sense to consolidate in those districts first. However, no matter what way you slice it up it's gonna draw some heat one way or another. Definitely not an easy task. Does anyone else find it ironic that Yvonne Jones questioned the number of seats in St. John's? You know, given the fact she represented one of the smallest districts in the province... food for thought. |
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Here's a list of the population of each district and it's population change between 2006 and 2011. http://www.stats.gov.nl.ca/Statistic...L_PED_2011.pdf |
Paul Davis will cut the number of MHAs down by 10 before the next election. From 48 to 38.
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I do, however, think that St. John's Metro will loose a couple seats. Again, based on pure numbers this shouldn't happen but the decision will be political. Just my speculation...:cheers: |
The city will probably lose a seat but I don't think you'll see the metro area really impacted.
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This is really intriguing.
I think the northeast Avalon will lose 2 for sure, perhaps 3 is the commission gets stuck trying to reach the "magic 10". Though some districts are really small in population, like those in Labrador, there is legislation which states Labrador has to have at least 4 seats, so reductions there are a non-starter, despite how small Cartwright-L'Anse au Clare is population-wise. Likely, we'll see principle towns (Clarenville, Grand Falls-Windsor, Stephenville) and their bedroom communities end up with their own districts while the hinterlands with a couple thousand here and a couple thousand there get pushed together. We'll probably get a revival of the old riding of 'Stephenville' encompassing Port au Port. Then St. George's-Burgeo and another for all of the south coast from Lapoile across. That eliminates 1 seat from the southwest corner, which is all that is possible given that the new southcoast riding would essentially be about 15% of the island's land mass (I'd hate to represent that riding). Humber East/West, Humber Valley and Bay of Islands will probably get juggled around to displace a couple thousand people into each. Resulting in something like Bay of Island North, Bay of Islands South, Humber Valley, reducing one seat from the Corner Brook area. They could probably reduce a seat some where between Bonavista North and Burin by bumping the lines up/down accordingly. Exploits, GFW-Buchans, and GFW-Green Bay South could probably be reduced to 2. Something like GFW-North and GFW-Interior maybe? Regardless, we're going to see a lot of stuff where they take 3-4 districts and blend parts of all of them to end up with 2-3. I think St. John's is going to bear a lot more of the brunt than people expect simply because the districts are so small geographically, in some cases just a few city blocks. Conversely, the entire west side of the northern peninsula is one district and, though the population is small, it takes about 7 hours to drive from one end of the district to the other. There just isn't room to expand some of these rural ridings because they've already been too far stretched. Even the one I think will happen for the southcoast will be entirely ferry serviced and would actually takes DAYS to campaign through in an election. |
Davis has said the Labrador seats may be cut, even if the legislation protecting them has to changed.
Ideally, we could divide Labrador up into three seats with equal population and then base the island and Metro on that so all seats have the same number. It'd require adding quite a few in Metro and more on the rural island... but it'd be more fair. Rural NL right now is hideously over-represented, but you can't make districts much bigger or its unreasonable to expect one, single MHA to serve it all. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoun...ile:Nl2011.PNG
At first I thought a lot of parts of rural NL were being over-represented, but after looking at the electoral map it isn't as bad as I thought. So I think now the region cuts will probably be a healthy mix of rural and urban. I can see, or would suggest: -Losing 2 of 4 in Labrador, splitting the area up into either east/west, or north/south -Combining 3 of the Norther Peninsula districts into 2. -Combining 2 of the Southern Burin Peninsula districts, leaving the norther part in it's current district, or a re-alignment so that the entire peninsula falls under one MHA (though it'd be heavily populated). -Conception Bay North shrinking from 4 to 2-3 districts -Some of the north-east coast's smaller districts coming together -Some shifting/elimination of St. John's urban areas. |
The media has brought up that the legislation says Labrador must be divided up into four seats but the legislation also says that the island be divided into 44 seats. That's why it needs to be amended.
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Unorthodox for sure, but it could work. |
The opposition intends to filibuster the legislation that would start the seat-cutting process.
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Liberals are worried about this because they've moved ahead with nominating so many candidates. If seats are cut it could cause a lot of infighting.
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So much talk of Labrador separatism in the House. 3/4 Labrador MHAs have openly advocated for it.
"Labrador doesn't need Newfoundland", "We'd be the richest country in the world without you", etc. It's only the PC member from Lab West fighting back. "How dare you stand in this sacred House and advocate separatism! You don't speak for my people!". House is in recess. Debate continues at 12:10 a.m. Second all-night session in a week. |
So all done now! 40 seats, 4 for Labrador. 8 seats will be coming from the island and according to a prof at MUN they will need to mainly come from rural areas.
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Bill 42 Passes after All-Night Session
VOCM News
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http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?mn=2&ID=52201 |
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