MPs and ordinary Montrealers showed up at the Montreal courthouse today to make their case at the public hearings into the proposed changes to the federal electoral map.

They included high profile MPs such as Justin Trudeau, Denis Coderre, Stéphane Dion, and Irwin Cotler who argued in favour of keeping traditional geographical divisions and communities and historical links intact.

Current proposals aim at renaming or physically changing ridings to reflect growing populations, for example cutting up the towns in the riding completely, such as Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Dorval. Ahuntsic would be renamed after hockey legend Maurice Richard, the name Westmount would disappear from the riding altogether and the Jewish General Hospital would no longer be in its current riding, just to name a few examples.

The MPs say constituents identify strongly with their communities and the names of their ridings, and that some of the proposed changes are not logical.

The changes should go through by April 2014.

For more info: www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca

Photos: Shuyee Lee