First of all, stifle your outrage.

Dividing Chilliwack between two federal electoral ridings, as part of a larger reconfiguration of boundaries, would certainly be inconvenient.

But it's hard not to feel some sympathy for those tasked with drawing up federal boundaries.

The geography and population distribution in British Columbia is such as to make the job nearly impossible.

Dividing the province up so each riding has a similar number of people is tough enough without taking into account municipalities, First Nations reserves, shared geography and all the other aspects of life that create communities and shared interests.

For years, Chilliwack has been fortunate to have a single representative in Ottawa.

But with the province's population growing fast, it was only a matter of time before the area including our city became too large for just one MP.

Unfortunately, as shown by the recent byelection (when many of those living in the Chilliwack riding tried to vote for Chilliwack-Hope candidates), multiple ridings in a city can sow confusion.

And when you don't know who your MLA or MP is, you don't have the personal connection that is supposed to exist between politician and constituent.

Politically, little will change. Abbotsford is another Conservative stronghold and, barring some sort of merger between the NDP and the Liberals, there is little chance Chilliwack ridings won't be coloured blue in the future.

A public hearing will be held in Abbotsford for the commissioners to receive input from the public on the changes.

Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl, too, plans on letting the commissioners know what he thinks.

So stay tuned; this isn't a done deal just yet.