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Wednesday, August 29, 2012 1937 - 2012 · Celebrating 75 Years Orono Weekly Times - 3 BOUNDARIES Continued from front tion in Ottawa for Clarington. Regional Councillor Willie Woo stated, "Whoever had created these new proposed ridings, certainly had no input from this municipality." He went on to say that Clarington is the only municipality in Durham that is being carved up. "This changes the dynamics of Clarington in Ottawa," according to Woo. Woo speculated that the provincial ridings will be matched up to their federal counterparts in the upcoming years. Not everyone is disappointed with the riding boundary realignment, according to Woo. "I have had some of the older generational residents from Newcastle tell me that they believe that Newcastle should amalgamate with Northumberland, because the two municipalities have more in common." Woo added that he doesn't see that happening though. Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster said of the new proposed changes, "Under the current boundary we (Clarington) have the chance to make a strong relationship with one Member of Parliament." Foster said that he first heard of the changes about two days ago, and had a quick meeting Tuesday morning with department heads to speak about the issues and concerns that the new proposed riding changes could have on Clarington He went on to say there are numerous downsides of the three proposed ridings. "First is that the areas that are paired up with Clarington,(including Oshawa, Port Hope and Cobourg) might have a larger voice than Clarington's area of the proposed ridings. Will we lose our voice under the proposed ridings?" A second concern Foster spoke about was party members. "Three different ridings could possibly have three different parties representing them. You can think of that as a good thing, because we could have three different political views, but on the downside we have three different voices trying to be heard for our area." Regional Councillor Woo stated that under the proposed changes he doesn't see any "one Member of Parliament speaking up for just Clarington as a whole." The potential upside of the realignment according to Foster was, "We ultimately have the chance to have three members of parliament in government, which means we have three times a voice in Ottawa for the Municipality." Durham Federal Conservative Riding Association President Aubrey Oppers told The Times that while he hasn't had a chance to look at the proposed boundaries yet, he did acknowledge, "This has huge implications to our riding." Oppers, who lives in Port Emily Osborne of Orono sold her photographic prints and sang at Picassos Picnic, a multidisciplinary celebration of youth held at the Visual Arts Centre on Saturday. Perry, added "We will now be the southern tip of a riding that expands over three hours in driving." John Wells, the Vice President of Policy for the Durham Federal Liberal Association said in an email to the Orono Weekly Times, "This is a stunning proposal, we have to challenge this and come up with a better result." Wells said that, "With the proposed boundaries, we (the different parties) would find it difficult to form Riding Associations and raise money." In total the Fair Representation Act will increase the size of Parliament by 30 new members, from the current 308 members to 338 members -- 15 from Ontario, six from British Columbia, six from Alberta, and three from Quebec. Two public hearings on the new riding distributions will be held close to Clarington. One will be at the Quality Hotel & Conference Centre Guild West Room, in Oshawa on Tuesday November 13th at 11:00 a.m and the second will be held in Cobourg at the Best Western Plus Cobourg Inn & Convention Centre Ballroom "B" on Monday November 12th at 1:00 p.m. Anyone wishing to make a presentation about the proposed changes are asked to sign up before October 1st at ontario@rfed-rcf.ca, or by mail to: Ms. Beverly Hayter, Commission Secretary, Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario, P.O. Box 638, Toronto, ON M5X 2A2. Are you in an abusive relationship? 905-623-6050 or 1-800-338-3397 (For women with or without children.) Call