WEDNESDAY
August 8, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 63
COMOX VALLEY RECORD
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BUILD, BAIL AND Sail at Nautical Days would not be complete (or as crowd-pleasing) without at least one vessel being lost at sea. For more photos from an extremely busy — and toasty — Nautical Days and Filberg Festival weekend in Comox, see pages 10 and 11. PHOTO BY CAITLIN McKINNON
Two more Comox Valley athletes are stepping into the spotlight at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Cam Levins of Black Creek ran the 10,000m final on Saturday, Aug. 4 and finished in a very respectable 11th in his first Olympic appearance. Levins clocked 27 minutes, 40.68 seconds in the event, which was won by Great Britain’s Mo Farah, who’s also expected in the field for the 5,000m.
... Complete story on ■ 29
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Courtenay, etc. en route to another riding? Record Staff Local residents are sounding the alarm about a federal riding redistribution proposal that apparently would hive much of the Comox Valley from Vancouver Island North, transferring it to Nanaimo-Alberni. “We in the Comox Valley have somehow become the butt of an incredible bad federal joke,”write Dorothy Drubek. “I have just received a copy of the proposed electoral map of B.C. for the distribution of federal districts and I am horrified. “The plan for our area is to basically divide Courtenay in half, with all of us north of the river to remain in the North Island district — and those of us south of the river to join the NanaimoAlberni riding,” she adds.
In another letter to the edi- boundaries are revised to reflect tor (also on page 33 of today’s population shifts and growth. If Record), Tom Finkelstein contrib- the change comes into effect, the boundary would extend south to utes his thoughts. “It appears that the appoin- Nanaimo and Port Alberni, and no longer tees to the commisextend sion, assisted by It appears that the north to federal bureaucrats who have likely never appointees to the commis- Campbell River and seen the Valley, wish sion, assisted by federal beyond. to tear its heart out,” There Finkelstein writes. bureaucrats who have will be “To divide this com- likely never seen the Vala public munity along the ley, wish to tear its heart hearing in Courtenay part of out. October Comox Road and the Tom Finkelstein about the Old Highway makes proposed no sense.” The federal government is pro- change. The province is gaining six posing to change the boundary in the riding of Vancouver Island electoral districts due to populaNorth, in keeping with a 10-year tion increases. In 2001 there were practice following the census about 3.9 million people in B.C. where electoral districts and The 2011 census pegged it at 4.4
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million. “High population growth was noted between the North Shore and Chilliwack, on Vancouver Island, in the Okanagan as well as in the Kamloops area,” John Hall, chair of the Electoral Boundaries Commission for B.C., said in a news release. “These changes have prompted us to make substantial adjustments to the boundary lines in these regions.” The commission also focused on historical patterns and community of interest or identity to achieve the goal of effective representation in Parliament. “We also bore in mind the proper representation of First Nations communities and residents of the northern electoral districts,” Hall said. ... see TIME ■ 2