On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:59:36 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:

Thu, 5 Feb 2026 04:11:19 -0000 (UTC), Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com>:

Am I correct in understanding that the main impetus for changing >>>>electoral boundaries is to ensure that each electoral district has >>>>approximately the same population as every other so that each person has >>>>approximately the same amount of influence in terms of selecting >>>>representatives? It seems to me that is the "prime mover": if that >>>>weren't necessary, there'd be no justification at all for changing >>>>electoral boundaries.

Computers can draw districts so that there is a single person population >>>difference.

Which in an urban area would be ludicrous since it could put residents
in a single high rise apartment building in different districts. And
simply equalizing the population of each district wouldn't prevent >>gerrymandering.

Lines are drawn through buildings. For instance, Chicago Union Station
has different ZIP Codes depending on which building entrance is used.

I have never heard of such a thing. Canada says that the standard
riding size is X with a variation within a given percent being
acceptable. BUT...it has rules that allow less than that if it's
within provinces with a constitutional guarantee - which is basically
QC, NS, NB, PEI and NL - which is of course half the provinces with
the unguaranteed half being ON (the largest) plus the four western
provinces (BC/AB/SK/MB) The guarantees for the Maritime provinces (NS/NB/PEI/NL) are relatively small but Quebec's are larger and it is
ONLY been in the most recent redistribution that BC+AB have gotten
more seats than QC despite having a larger population for 20,30,40
years or so. Which given Quebec already gets constitutional guarantees
as the only majority French language province has skewed things
further.

Thus the saying that while Ottawa is 2500 miles from BC, BC is 25000
miles from Ottawa - at least in perception...

I assure you that no single state in the US feels as remote from
Washington as BC and Alberta routinely do from Ottawa.

I recently took out a book on immigration in Canada from two writers
in eastern Ontario and Quebec that ONLY mentioned the situation in
Toronto and Montreal which wildly distorts immigration since Toronto
gets about 1/2 of immigrants while the next 4 cities are Vancouver,
Edmonton, Calgary and Montreal - and had NOTHING in the book about
immigration in Vancouver, Edmonton or Calgary. I mentioned this to the librarians when I returned the book and said they really should
withdraw the book as it completely ignored immigration in western
Canada but instead they put it back on the featured books shelf!

I didn't say equalizing population prevents gerrymandering. There is a
right to districts that are substantially equal in population but no
right to boundaries drawn for other reasons. A map will be presented
that is substantially equal, off by a single person, so it is not
rejected for unequal population.

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