Evidence of meeting #67 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was riding.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
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Conservative
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Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
The way it's written...and again, you mentioned the 70% as if it were a problem.
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Conservative
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Conservative
Rob Clarke Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
If you turned it around the other way, if you add more non-aboriginal communities, the same argument could be made.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
I think you will have to live with this comment.
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Conservative
Rob Clarke Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Oh? As a first nations person I have to live with that, Mr. Dion?
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Liberal
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Clarke Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Mr. Dion, as a first nations person I have to live with that?
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Conservative
Rob Clarke Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
No, I'm offended by what you just said.
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Conservative
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Conservative
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Conservative
Rob Clarke Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
No, Mr. Dion, what are you saying right now?
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rob Clarke Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Are you're saying that being an aboriginal, I can't represent everyone equally, and to the non-aboriginals...? That's what you're saying.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
I said that an MP who is accusing a commission of doing gerrymandering because the commission is increasing the numbers of aboriginals in his riding is saying something offensive. That's what I'm saying.
Where does the 75% come from? Except for Mr. Marit, we didn't see any proof of it, and the majority of the commission...and I must say that I have a strong regard for Mr. Courtney's ability to count, because he's a great political scientist. The commission has little doubt.... I will quote the commission:
The Commission has little doubt, however, that the general public accepts the new electoral districts as a genuine effort to comply with the principles of the Act and to ensure respect for the democratic process.
They also say that “a large number of contacts were inspired by the encouragement of members of Parliament opposed to the abolition of rural-urban hybrid districts”. The StarPhoenix says the same, in that a number of proposals that were against the majority report “consisted of pre-formatted postcards distributed to supporters by Conservative MPs”.
This is something that was said in your province, so what is the committee supposed to do with that?
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
First we'll hear from Mr. Breitkreuz and then Mr. Hoback. Or Mr. Hoback first...?
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Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
People have their own ways of expressing their concerns at committee. Some do it through cards. Some do it through presentations. Mr. Marit is quoted as saying 75%. That's Mr. Marit, one of the commissioners, and that's his quote. That's where that number comes from—
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Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
—and I read that in my presentation.
When I did my presentation in Prince Albert, the StarPhoenix and the Leader-Post were not present. Maybe they attended in Saskatoon and Regina. Maybe there are different types of presentations.
But I'll tell you that in Prince Albert it was I think twelve to one who were saying “status quo”, and the one was actually looking for changes because, again, she lived just 30 kilometres outside of Prince Albert, yet she was included in the North Battleford riding. Out of the presentations in the city of Prince Albert, there was nobody asking for this drastic change.
The focus here is getting lost; it's getting lost in the fact that we want this rural-urban blend or an urban riding and a rural riding. The focus needs to be on how we best serve constituents across the province. When you focus in on just urban seats, you make the rural riding so unworkable that it actually defeats my ability to properly represent those constituents.
Mr. Cullen, you talked about your big riding. There are unfortunate circumstances. Mr. Clarke has an unfortunate circumstance, because he has a big area with a large population, but when you go to the southern half of the province, there's no reason to do that. There's absolutely no reason to do that, yet for some reason they felt that they should.