Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
Why would that be a "big" problem?
This rural/urban divide is present everywhere...
BC manages to function in spite of Peace River having Conservative MPs while Saanich-Gulf Island has a Green MP...
I doubt the gap between Kingston and the rest of Eastern Ontario is actually close to, say, between Austin and rural Texas. Among other possible examples. Or San Francisco and CA's cowboy/oil country. The examples are endless... in Kingston's case, with our political system, it actually works decently well. Kern County federal votes are always wasted, and so are Austin's, while Kingston can have a MP from a party that's different from the other MPs of Eastern Ontario and therefore still have some weight in both provincial and federal parliaments.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister F
Peterborough is very liberal as well, but the riding has more countryside so conservatives get elected more often.
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I should clarify, when I talk about Kingston's uniqueness from the surrounding area, I'm not just talking about electing a Liberal MP(P) while everyone around elects Tories. It's much deeper than that.
Highway 401 might as well be the Limit of the Universe for all Kingstonians know or care about anything happening north of it. There's very little ties of any sort between the city and the surrounding counties.
And Kingston doesn't just elect Liberals, the city, right down to its core fibre, is fundamentally a progressive city. Whereas Ottawa, for example, also elects Liberals, but has a strong fiscally conservative (and even socially conservative in some ways) streak in the city's culture.
Belleville just up the 401 is not much smaller than Kingston, it's a city as well, but its culturally, economically, and politically well integrated with the surrounding Eastern Ontario countryside, even though it does elect Liberals (although, like Peterborough, that's hidden by the riding mechanics).
Kingston is even fairly divorced from the influence of both Ottawa and Toronto--we don't really associate with them much despite their overwhelmingly size and proximity.