Residents delivered a message loud and clear, keep Shelburne in the South Shore.

The federal electoral boundaries commission held a hearing in Bridgewater Tuesday night to discuss how riding lines will be redrawn across the province.

The commission’s mandate is to try to distribute Nova Scotia’s population equally amongst the 11 seats.

To accommodate population growth in Halifax, the commission proposed extending the South Shore-St. Margaret’s riding further into Halifax to include areas up to Sambro and moving Shelburne into the newly named Acadian Shores riding along with Yarmouth and Digby.

All the just over a dozen people who addressed the boundaries commission said Shelburne must remain part of the South Shore.

The current Member of Parliament for South Shore St. Margaret’s Rick Perkins was first to speak.

Perkins talked at length about the historical and cultural ties between Shelburne and the rest of the South Shore.

“When you take one and slice a chunk out of it, sort of like cutting the heart out of your community. I think that’s why you saw the passion here tonight saying, I know you’ve got this problem up there in Halifax but don’t take it out on us,” said Perkins.

MP Rick Perkins addresses electoral boundary commission members. Photo Ed Halverson

Almost everyone who spoke at the hearing discussed the importance of keeping communities of interest together; communities that share not just history and culture but also industries and attitudes.

Perkins says that’s why he proposes keeping Shelburne in the South Shore riding as it has been for 50 years and moving areas such as Timberlea and Hubley into a city riding.

Perkins says that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to serve his constituents in those areas.

“I’m happy to represent anyone that’s living in whatever riding I’m lucky enough to represent,” said Perkins. “The challenge is balancing those issues that you have to do because the perspectives of urban people and suburban people in a large city like Halifax versus small communities like ours, they do have different perspectives. You try to balance them but it’s difficult.”

Elections Canada reassess riding boundaries across the country every 10 years to ensure Canadians receive equal and fair representation.

Based on the 2021 census results each riding in Nova Scotia should represent 88,000 people.

Under special circumstances, that number can be adjusted up or down by 25 percent so an electoral district can have no fewer than 66,000 and no more than 110,000 people.

Commission chair Justice Cindy Bourgeois says they’ve received the message that their proposal is focused too much on numbers and doesn’t reflect the reality of the communities on the ground.

“So, the commission is going to go back. We’re going to listen to the information that we’ve received about here and at other meetings across the province and see whether we can come up with a revised plan for the boundaries that not only respect the numbers that we have to, in terms of the equivalency of voters in each riding, but also take into consideration other nuances that maybe we didn’t appreciate as much until we heard from people who live in the various communities,” said Bourgeois. “And that’s what the process is supposed to do.”

Nova Scotians can register to speak at a province-wide virtual public hearing to be held June 27.

Anyone who wishes can provide feedback to the commission until June 28.

The commission will then have until the end of the year to finalize their proposed electoral boundary changes.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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