One of the most annoying inequities in federal politics, other than the Senate, may soon be corrected. The Conservative government plans to bring in legislation to give B.C., Alberta and Ontario the actual number of Commons seats those fast-growing provinces deserve. It’s long overdue.
While many people think that the House of Commons is a “rep by pop” institution, that is not the case. There are certain constitutional guarantees that keep some parts of Canada vastly over-represented.
While each province or territory should have at least one seat, Prince Edward Island, for example, has four MPs for its 136,000 residents. In other words, votes of PEI residents are nearly four times more powerful than those of the Okanagan Coquihalla, which had a population of just over 107,000 in 2006.
Unfortunately, because of these guarantees, including one that says Quebec must have 75 seats, the only way to properly represent Canada’s growing population in the House of Commons is by adding seats.
At present, there are 308 MPs. It could be argued that is perhaps 50 too many. However, it is better to have too many MPs than to have some fast-growing areas of the country, like the Okanagan or Lower Mainland, severely under-represented in Ottawa.
Under-representation of B.C. and Alberta is perhaps the most glaring problem (the proposal would see B.C. get seven more seats and Alberta five), because both provinces rarely get the attention in Ottawa that Ontario does. Ontario, because of its large and fast-growing population, and its geographic proximity to Ottawa, never has any trouble getting attention. The same cannot be said for Western Canada, even though a large proportion of economic and population growth in Canada now comes from the four western provinces.
Fairness is fundamental to a healthy democracy. If this proposal comes to pass, Canada’s population will be more fairly represented in Parliament.
– Langley Times