The Provincial Attorney General, the Honourable P. Mitchell Murphy, stated today that the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Charlottetown, Mr. Harry Gaudet, appears to have been misinformed in respect of the Province's new electoral map.
Last week, Mr. Gaudet suggested that "nine of the twenty-seven provincial electoral districts offended the plus or minus 25% guideline." The fact of the matter, however, the Attorney General said, "is that only 4 of the 27 electoral districts are even marginally beyond the 25% variance guideline." Even in these 4 districts, the small discrepancies arise because of only 106 electors out of a total of more than 94,000 enumerated in the last provincial election. Any discrepancies that might now exist arose following the enumeration last fall and are the natural result of people moving in and out of electoral districts from time to time. "Surely," the Minister added, "the City of Charlottetown cannot justify the significant legal costs that will be associated with its appeal because a dozen or so voters in one district put that district above or below the 25% variance guideline."
As for Mr. Gaudet's comments last week that imbalances under the new electoral rules might not be corrected for as much as 20 years, the Attorney General stated that, on this point as well, Mr. Gaudet appears to have been ill informed about the new rules. The Electoral Boundaries Act, which came into force when the election was called last fall, contains a process by which the boundaries will be reviewed by the Electoral Boundaries Commission after every third general election (including the one last November). The Electoral Boundaries Commission will be an independent Commission consisting of a judge or retired judge of the Supreme Court, and two other members appointed by the Speaker of the Legislature.
"Since an election must be held at least once every 5 years, according to the constitution, the Electoral Boundaries Commission will start its work to review the boundaries within the next 10 years and not 20 years as suggested by Mr. Gaudet." "It appears to me," the Attorney General concluded, "that Mr. Gaudet and the City's lawyer are attempting to rationalize the expenditure of taxpayers' money now on an appeal to the Supreme Court when, if they were only patient, any discrepancies that might now exist will eventually be reviewed by the Electoral Boundaries Commission."
For more information, contact Merrill Wigginton, Chief Electoral Officer, (902) 368-5895.