It only makes sense that the 604 will maximize the benefits to their power base in the 604 at our expense via things like land use planning, resource extraction planning, water use rights, environmental controls, infrastructure spending, immigration, education spending, health care spending, BC Hydro transmission policies, utility rates, access to outdoor recreation, and even economic planning.

All policy will always be a win for Vancouver even if at our expense, but a win for the North will only happen if it is a win for Vancouver. The political party hacks will assure us of this, because they will all know where the majority power comes from in this province.

Currently rural BC only has 23 of 79 seats in the provincial legislature that reside outside of the Vancouver-Victoria area. A total of 29.11% of the legislature votes for 90+% of the provincial land mass.

After the proposed changes rural BC would only have 20 out of 81 seats for 24.69% of the legislature votes. A 15% reduction in representation for rural BC.

The Boundaries Commission projects by 2013 places like the Northwest Coast will lose 5% of their population (factoring in the new port I assume).

Over the same time period they assume places in the Vancouver-Victoria majority will grow by anywhere from 19-52% depending on the location over 6 years. If this happens we will se a further 20% reduction in representation for rural BC in a mere 6 years for another 4 MLAs’ lost.

In 2013 purely by population rural BC will be reduced from the 23 seats today to 16 seats and the urban majority will increase from 56 seats to 73 seats leaving rural BC with a mere 18% of the vote in the legislature for 90+% of the province land mass.

By 2020 Metro Vancouver itself is expected to double its population at current trends. At that point BC outside of the Vancouver-Victoria majority will have only 10% of the provincial vote in the legislature for 90+% of the land mass and 70% of provincial wealth creation. Three out of four residents in the Vancouver-Victoria majority will not even have been born in BC.

IMO with the cost the provincial government pays to outsource our government to organizations like the Beetle Action Committee and the Northern Trust ect it could pay for an actual real elected government with real elected representatives setting economic policy for an independent Northern BC that has the sovereignty for its elected officials to make real decisions on policy.

This idea of outsourcing government for the North so the Lower Mainland doesn't have to deal with us should be a big red flag that our political system does not work for Northern BC.

So how do we get indepence for the Province of Northern BC? The Northwest Territories were split so can we. I do not believe it is written in stone that the provinces have to continue in their original form. How do we get it started?

One way to get it started would be to create a political party which would have as its key objective the intent to separate from the rest of the province. It needs some credible, experienced people to do that for others to take it seriously. If it got started soon, it could run a slate of candidates in the next election and really throw an unknown into the works since no one would know where the support would come from. I suspect it may come more from the right than the left, thus it would be in the interest of the Liberals to reject the Commission’s report.

However, once a party is formed, and it gets some level or respect and recognition by people, the Commission report may have opened Pandora’s box and could give the rural areas more political clout than it has had in recent history.

Even if the Commission’s report is rejected, who knows where such a party will lead to. In fact, it may not just deal with what may appear to some to be the solution, it may deal with some more realistic goals such as strong decentralization policies which could actually be supported by some in the south who are being squeezed into a lifestyle of expensive housing, long commutes, long lineups, less access to affordable outdoor recreation opportunities, etc.

I suggest the geographic boundaries include the Charlottes, the mainland from the Alaska panhandle down to Bella Coola to Alberta, from the Yukon to 100 Mile House or so in the central part, plus at the least the east Kootenays.

Are there dangers? You bet!!!!! it is a vast underdeveloped area with many wants and, as one may discover when one is faced with the realities of the situation, insufficient funds to meet all the needs, let alone the wants.

In the meantime, the southern half of the province will continue to hum away at continuing to develop the new economy which it is busy doing and continue to be a major powerhouse with the rest of the Coastal Cascadia region of North America.

It is one thing to be sitting on some natural resources, it is another to make agreements in the national and international marketplace to sell those to the highest bidder and while ensuring that all development costs are taken care of, there is enough left over to provide the services we feel we are not currently getting.

Head offices will not move from Vancouver or Toronto or Montreal or Chicago just because we are a new province. We will continue to feed the other parts of the world with cheap resources the same as we are doing now. We will have to deal with such agreements as GAT and NAFTA, unless we also separate from Canada and the world.

A panacea? Not in my mind. But the threat to act in such a fashion may do the trick in some people's minds.

This is the worst article I've seen on this site. Representation by dollar? People leave the north because there isn't enough to keep them there. Try fixing that problem and stuff this pathetic pleading for gerrymandering.

Harry salmon that is why this article has been written. The money is taken out of rural BC and very little is returned.
I don't know if the Kootenays would want to be included. They maybe better off forming thier own province because of the geographic separation from the north.

IMO a province of Northern BC would have a small legislature of no more than 24 MLA's elected through the BCSTV process that does not recognize party affiliation in official legislative duties. It could sit for 2-weeks every three months and pay for the politicians would be 1/6th what current MLA's are paid, plus travel expenses, cutting in half the bureaucracy cost of politicians. No more need for NDI or Beetle Commissions, because we would have elected officials doing that kind of work. Idealy local politicians would also run as MLA’s representing their areas.

I would put the capital city in either Vanderhoof, Quesnel, Mackenzie, or Tumbler Ridge to keep it central, but also rural in its nature reflecting the vast majority of this new province. I would envision this new province including everything North of Clinton, with Kamloops the Southern tip of the province via Blue River that would have a population of just under 500,000 people on par with any of the three big Atlantic province in population base. I would even extend an invitation for the Yukon to join with Northern BC.

Obviously the rules of Canada would have to apply to this new province including all the federal treaties Canada belongs to. The decades that follow would see reinvestment in the north that would build its own new image and create an evolving life of its own based on the will and principles of the people from the North and not imposed from an opportunistic political system of the South.

IMO the BC Democratic Futures Party would be the best platform in which to make this happen, although it would obviously need to have the constitution amended to facilitate this.

Time Will Tell

I think the Okanogan and the Kootenays would have to make their own determination. They may be happy with their growing population base and want to stay with the Lower Mainland, or they may opt for their own province as well? The Kootenays may even wish to join Alberta as has always been their dream in those parts. At least Alberta isn't dominated by one area of the province and thus has more balanced rural-urban policies.

A province of northern BC? THink about it for a minute. The Peace wouldn't have any of it because they'd be putting more $ into than they could ever get out of it. They'd be better off with Alberta. So say goodbye to oil revs. And as the lumber industry keeps falling such a province would probably be poorer than Newfounland. There's no escaping the flow of money to Vancouver. There's no magic bullet like separation that will solve the problems.

What the north needs is more and better infrastructure. And since the bclibs' political dominance is unchallenged here they ignore the north without peril.

In fairness, there has probably been more development in the "North" in the last 5-10 years than in the previous 50 before that. It's obviously not as much as we would like, but it is certainly better. I'm sure every area of the Province would want more and that they feel they are entitled to it.

We simply can't get around the fact that the VAST majority of the population lives in the 604. Most of the money will be spent to service the needs of the majority and that majority isn't in the 250 . . .