Frontenac County Losing Out in Riding Redistribution

Jeff Green | Sep 13, 2012

Editorial by Jeff Green

In one sense it makes very little difference when riding boundaries change. Much of what both the federal and provincial governments do these days is done on a regional basis that transcend both municipal and riding boundaries. The federal and provincial governments both have Eastern Ontario Development Plans in place and health care in Ontario is increasingly being managed by 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINS), which also transcend political jurisdictions.

For many readers, riding redistribution will only be noticed on polling day in October 2015, when instead of choosing from the candidates in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, they will either be voting in Lanark-Frontenac-Hastings or Belleville-Napanee-Frontenac if they live in South Frontenac.

The Hastings-Frontenac-Lanark seat will be as safe a Tory seat as there is in all of Ontario, while the Belleville-Napanee-Frontenac riding will be more of a swing riding, so it might attract a bit more attention during elections. Does that mean Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair, or (dare we say it) Justin Trudeau might be sighted at Sydenham High School during the election campaign? No, but one or all of them may indeed show up in Belleville or Napanee. With a population of 18,000, South Frontenac will be the second largest jurisdiction in the new riding, but Belleville, with a population of 50,000, will be the population centre of the riding. With a combined population of over 30,000, Napanee/Loyalist/Stone Mills will also over-shadow South Frontenac.

Lanark County, with 65,000 people, will dominate the Hastings-Frontenac-Lanark riding. The vast territory from the Lanark/Frontenac border to Bancroft is sparsely populated, and does not include a single population centre of note, save Tweed and Bancroft, but even they have a combined population of only 10,000.

At least residents of Central and North Frontenac are acknowledged in the riding’s name. The same cannot be said for Addington Highlands residents, who may rightly feel totally ignored.

Aside from being orphaned in provincial and federal elections, the fact that Frontenac is split into three ridings, (Frontenac Islands remain part of the Kingston and the Islands riding) underlines a great problem for Frontenac County in general: its lack of identity.

It has been difficult to promote Frontenac County as a destination, as a place to live, raise a family, and work, because people do not identify themselves as Frontenac County residents. When people say they live in Smiths Falls, Perth, or even Maberly, they generally then say their town is “in Lanark County”.

When people say they live in Sydenham, or Verona, or Sharbot Lake, they generally say their town is “north of Kingston”.

There is a difference. People do not talk about Frontenac County as a place. That is one of the challenges faced by the 150th anniversary celebrations the County is planning, and one of the opportunities as well, to finally bring some sort of cohesion to a disparate group of people who sometimes have very little in common. It’s a very long drive from the dark skies of Vennachar at the top of the county to Big Sandy Bay on Wolfe Island, but on the other hand it is a beautiful, varied drive as well - from the Canadian Shield landscape, through pastoral farmland, then crossing the Limestone City to the shores of Lake Ontario, onto the ferry and around Wolfe or Howe Island to view the north edge of the US.

When those 150th anniversary celebrations come along, will there be three MPs and 3 MPPs in attendance? Will all three help find funding for the celebration? When Frontenac County needs a voice at Queen’s Park, is it ok that our representative will come from Belleville, Carleton Place or Kingston?

Will this hurt our chances of being noticed?

Maybe not, but it certainly won’t help.

Scott Reid made a commitment to the people of Lanark to try to unify Lanark into one riding. He did so because he knew it would be in their best interests. The converse is also true. Splitting Frontenac County into three ridings is not in the best interests of Frontenac County residents.

This is something Frontenac County Council may want to address, and may want to bring forward to public meetings on riding redistribution that are scheduled for next month.