If there was any doubt about Doug Ford’s contempt for democracy in Ontario, his latest decision to leave the province’s electoral-district boundary map as-is should put the matter to rest.
The federal government is moving ahead with a national redistricting, which means new riding boundaries for the next federal election. That’s normal. The feds are required to adjust ridings based on census data every decade, a process that’s overseen by commissions removed from political parties and partisan considerations.
Last week, for TVO Today, John Michael McGrath wrote a detailed analysis of federal boundary changes and what they mean for Ontario. As he notes, federal redistricting is above board and concerned with establishing rational boundaries that take relevant democratic factors into consideration, including, among other things, linguistic and distinct community representation.
Ford is having none of it for Ontario, breaking with a policy — established by his Tory predecessors in 1996 — that, as it happens, was designed to limit the number of politicians in the province. Today, Ford’s intransigence means that some votes in the province are going to count for much more than others, as some ridings are home to tens of thousands more voters than others. The move effectively disenfranchises some of the province’s residents and leaves electoral boundaries behind the times, divorced from rapidly changing demographic realities.
The choice not to rearrange Ontario’s map to match the federal map could have been justifiable, had Ford offered rational reasons for his decision. But he didn’t, nor did he offer to launch a provincial review of the status quo.
As political scientist Nelson Wiseman told Global News, Ford “does not know what he is talking about.” Indeed. Ford argued that he’s leaving the boundaries as they are because doing so makes for fewer politicians.
“We’re just leaving it alone — we just aren’t touching the boundaries. Less politicians, the better it is,” he said, while claiming the current map “works, so it’s all good.” He also claimed, without evidence, that the federal government wanted to “jury-rig” the ridings.
The federal process in Canada isn’t the same as some American processes, which are undertaken by state legislatures and are expressly partisan political affairs designed to advantage one party over another — which is to say, to gerrymander the electoral map.
Going off Ford’s reasoning, Ontarians will be left with fewer representatives at Queen’s Park, which means weaker community representation, something Ford typically at least says he cares about.
Having more politicians brings representatives closer to the community and supports local concerns being brought to the halls of the provincial capital. Having more politicians also shrinks the power of the leader’s office and empowers local representatives, as a larger caucus displaces centralized power.
The fact is that updated riding boundaries are good for local communities and democratic representation, and failing to update them is anti-democratic. That’s not a surprise with this lot, but it is another disappointment in a long string of failures.
On one thing, however, Ford might be right. “I’m going to leave the boundaries alone,” he said, “and people will decide if they want to move forward with our government.” The flippancy here suggests the premier is betting that people won’t care. He’s probably right, though they should care.
Riding-boundary adjustments seem wonkish and abstract, an issue that comes off as complex — though it’s not, really — and removed from the day-to-day concerns of regular people. Ford often counts on this to hoodwink Ontarians, and opposition politicians have been unable to make the case that he’s mistaken.
But our electoral-riding maps are essential to how our democracy operates, to deciding who is represented by whom and at what ratio of elected representatives to population, to quite literally mapping out who gets heard and by whom and how. The Ford government should at least launch a review of the electoral map and commit to ensuring that every resident has fair, adequate, and near-equal representation. And if it’s not willing to take that on, it should take the federal boundaries and adopt them.
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