Today's tabling of the Boundaries Commission report marks a momentous day in the Island's constitutional history.

If the Commission's recommendations are accepted, the change will see the Island's traditional way of electing Members of Parliament change from a parish-based system to one based purely on population and single seat constituencies.

While the best arguments, on the basis of fairness, can still be made in favour of some form of proportional representation for Bermuda, it now seems likely that Bermuda will go to the next General Election to elect 36 MPs, each representing a constituency on their own.

When the Commission's report is tabled tomorrow, the most important thing to examine will be how the constituency boundaries are drawn. In an area like Devonshire, which is likely to keep four MPs, and now returns two MPs from a PLP stronghold and two MPs from a UBP stronghold, the boundaries could either effectively retain the status quo if it has two seats in the northern part of the parish and two in the southern part, or it could end up with four swing seats if the constituencies are drawn from east to west.

The questions that has to be answered is whether Bermuda wants an electoral system where every single seat is up for grabs, or one in which each party retains some strongholds.

While the former system may seem attractive, it can also lead to dramatic swings from one election to the next, which may reflect majorities on a constituency basis, but fails to represent how the Country voted as a whole. That is the primary failure of the Westminster system in small countries.

The Boundaries Commission, and by extension the leadership of the Island's two main parties, have made their recommendations. From today, it is up to the public to have their say before the Commission is debated in the House of Assembly sometime in November.