EDITORIAL – Little to complain about in redrawing of local riding boundaries
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
WHEN THE FEDERAL electoral boundaries commission released its proposal for realigning the Kamloops ridings, we were astonished — it didn’t make sense.
Well, the B.C. Electoral Boundaries Commission has now released its own final report and — while it has its quirks — it makes a lot more sense than the federal plan did.
Basically, we still have a Kamloops-North Thompson riding but instead of Kamloops-South Thompson, we’ll have a riding called Kamloops Central.
To be sure, some of the changes are radical. Kamloops Central becomes an island wedged between Cariboo-Chilcotin on the west and by Kamloops-North riding to the east.
The two Kamloops ridings illustrate the challenge faced by boundaries commissions in balancing population with physical size.
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Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
You need to take a look at a map again…and look horizontal instead of vertical. If you think Barriere 1 hour north and Clear water 2 hours North, need to be included with Kamloops, Why is it not sensible to have Cherry Creek 20 min West, Tobiano 30 minutes West and Savona at 40 min West, grouped with a territory that isn’t even remotely attached to them. While these three communities are either retired or WORK IN KAMLOOPS, why are they catagorized in a foreign territory? Only a screwball could come up with a plan like this. Living in one riding, and working in a different one? Give me a break.
How is this better? Please explain how it’s better to have Westsyde & Valleyview as the 2 main population centres than having Westsyde as part of a north shore region and Valleyview as part of the south shore? How is it better to make an already large north Thompson district become huge and have a moderate sized south Thompson region now tiny?
Better than the plan for the federal ridings.