Emerson MLA says riding's name is being thrown in 'waste bin of history'

Emerson MLA Cliff Graydon says the electoral divisions boundaries commission is discarding history by changing his riding's name.

The commission, which redraws Manitoba's electoral map every 10 years under an independent, non-partisan process, changed the Emerson riding's boundaries and renamed it Borderland in its December report, which took effect at the beginning of this year.

"A group of individuals whom nobody elected have decided that the name of Emerson belongs in the waste bin of history," Graydon says in a letter to Richard Chartier, chair of the commission and chief justice of Manitoba.

"They have decided without consultation to change the name of the constituency to a new one, Borderland, a term nobody identified with and a term that carries no history of its own."

Graydon's letter asks that the commission's report, which outlines the new electoral divisions, be changed to restore the name Emerson, and that a long-term change that would allow people to have a voice in naming their ridings be considered.

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The commission's final report was released in December. An interim report was released in May.

The final report doesn't say why Emerson's name was changed, but the borders of the electoral division in south-central Manitoba, just north of the U.S. border,are similar to the borders of the Border Land School Division.

The letter says Graydon doesn't question the need for independence in creating new electoral division boundaries, just in the naming of ridings.

In his letter objecting to the change, Graydon says Emerson has a history dating back to 1872.

"The names can be and should be held sacred," he says about constituencies.

Graydon announced last year that he doesn't plan to run in the renamed electoral division in the next election. The announcement came amid allegations that he asked female staffers to sit on his lap; he was later kicked out of the Progressive Conservative caucus for "a pattern of inappropriate behaviour."

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