The current riding map does not serve the Yonge & Eglinton neighbourhood well. The neighbourhood is split up into three different ridings - Don Valley West, Eglinton-Lawrence, and St. Paul's - and we find ourselves off in the very corner of each of these ridings. As a result of this, the candidates don't reach us as well. I have seen precisely zero candidate signs this election, and about 25% of the campaign flyers I get are for candidates from other ridings, due to the fact that I'm a block away from each of the two other ridings.
If we must define our community by adjacent geography, I would consider Yonge & Eg. to be my community. I certainly feel more of a sense of shared community with someone just on the other side of Yonge than I do with the people down on St. Clair who are campaigning against streetcar lanes. However, the riding map has divided my geographic community up among three ridings, leaving us as an afterthough in each of our representatives' minds. My representatives and my riding candidates are very good at representing my needs as a Torontonian, but they simply to not take into account my needs as a Yonge & Egger, because only a small part of the neighbourhood is in the riding.
Everywhere else I've lived, the entire community has been part of one riding. Other communities were included in the riding too, but the geographic area that I perceived as "my community" was not split up. When I talked politics with someone I considered a neighbour, I was certain they would be in the same riding as me. Unfortunately, this is not the case at Yonge & Eg. in the 21st century.
Next time the riding map is changed, all of the Yonge & Eg. neighbourhood should be included in the same riding. We are a small, densely populated area with (by reputation, at least) a rather uniform demographic that is likely to have similar political needs. To split us up defeats the purpose of having ridings in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment