Talk:Ridings

Talk Page for Ridings

 * Matthew A. Terry
 * Regarding the French. Thanks for the editing, ekse. I'm a bit rusty.--Shadowjester 17:58, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Demographics
We have a portion of the page listing ridings with a young population. Is there any research to show that these are promising in terms of getting votes?

To what extent has anyone polled other parts of the population to get an idea of how receptive they might be?

Has anyone done research (like, say, a direct mail campaign) in a single riding to determine how receptive people are to our message?

What was the source of the demographic information, do we have more of it and can it be made available?

Regions and Populations
What are the 'regions' of Canada? By that, I mean not only Province, but also things like Aboriginal Territories, things like the Metropolitan Toronto Area, the prairies, the east and left coasts, the north, etc.

There are also populations that tend to cluster in regions (that may or may not span geopolitical boundaries) but also have members that may be spread as far as across the entire country and other parts of the world.

I think it would be helpful to enumerate which groups of voters have which concerns and how we address those concerns.

Provinces and Territories
Canada has the following Provinces/Territories (Capitol in brackets)


 * Alberta (Edmonton)
 * British Columbia (Victoria)
 * Manitoba (Winnipeg)
 * New Brunswick (Fredericton)
 * Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John's)
 * Northwest Territories (Yellowknife)
 * Nova Scotia (Halifax)
 * Nunavut (Iqaluit)
 * Ontario (Toronto)
 * Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown)
 * Québec (Québec City)
 * Saskatchewan (Regina)
 * Yukon (Whitehorse)

Quebec
I am particularly mindful of difficult issues such as the presence of the Bloc Quebecois. Currently, AFAIK, the PPC has no official position with respect to Quebec's unique concerns. Certainly as a national party, we would be expected to say where we stand. However, there are some interesting wrinkles here.

Let me say for the record, I come from Brockville, where in one famous incidence someone here publicly burned the Quebec flag. Although I was not in that camp, I had for most of the years since Quebec's concerns hit the national stage been a staunch federalist and completely opposed to special treatment for Quebec.

On its face, it seems fair that if we have a federation of ten provinces and three territories that every one should get equal treatment. However, I think that Quebec is truly different for a number of reasons and that we need to artfully deal with their concerns.

What changed my mind on this issue is that I am one of the 15% of Canadians of Scottish Descent (we should think of them too). I saw the movie 'The Stone of Destiny' and as someone who is (partly) Scottish by descent I was scandalized at how the British government had stripped them of their sovereignty. Scotland is only about the size of Quebec in terms of population, but it truly is a distinct place. Similarly, Quebec is definitely distinct. Other parts of Canada may be as well, but not quite in the same way.

Beyond having the obvious differences, Quebec has shown that a significant minority believes they are distinct to the point of wishing to secede. This is an extant issue and it is not going away until we strike a deal that a true majority of the Quebec public supports. I may be naive, but I think that the people of Quebec would be glad to remake our relationship in a way that would be more than acceptable to both them and the rest of the country.

Meantime, in terms of the PPC, I would be inclined to at least approach the Bloc Quebecois and see if they would work with us to rationalize our policies enough so that we could, for the time being, support them in Quebec (that is, not field candidates there and allow them to act as proxy for us). I have a feeling that mutual endorsement would likely hurt both parties. However, I would be inclined to strike a deal with them to form a government should the situation arise and have clear rules of engagement for this.

The above may sound strange, but I am thinking that in terms of dealing with the future it would be very good if we could have a good working relationship with a party that clearly has the support of the Quebec people. Whatever it is, a new deal needs to be struck. The current one does not work. If it did, there would not be a Parti Quebecois. English Canada is not competent to devise and dictate that deal. It has to be done in cooperation with French Canada. Again, I may be naive, but I think that it is possible to remake our deal with Quebec in such a way that they would be happy and so would we. I don't think anyone wants a fractured Canada with a Quebec that secedes from confederation and right now all Quebec has been offered is the status-quo or secession. It is a sub-optimal situation and it will not self-correct. In fact, it appears to be getting worse with time.