How the West was Lost...

[SilentSwirl]

--> BC with 13% of Canada's population has about 11.5% of the seats in Canada's Parliament, whereas the Maritime Provinces combined, with only 7.5% of Canada's population have 10.4% of the seats in Canada's Parliament.

or viewed from another perspective...

--> Alberta with nearly 10% of Canada's population has about 9% of the seats in Canada's Parliament, whereas the Maritime Provinces combined, with only 7.5% of Canada's population, have 10.4% of the seats in Canada's Parliament.

or...

--> BC and Alberta combined with 23% of Canada's population have about 20% of the seats in Canada's Parliament, whereas Quebec with 24% of Canada's population, has almost 27% of the seats in Canada's Parliament.

 

[Jersay]

There should be more representation but you are not going to get seats from Quebec.

 

[Finder]

Could always add more seats.

 

[FiveParadox]

Census Readjustment

As per the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act, the seats in the House of Commons are going to be readjusted to match the population of the Provinces after the next census. The reason that some Provinces may seem "overly" represented is that a Province's representation cannot decrease beyond what the numbers were when the Act was passed.

 

[Finder]

Thus they could just add seats to correct the problem

 

[FiveParadox]

Correct.

Yes, Finder, that is probably exactly what is going to happen. Some Provinces may lose seats (so long as their representation does not decrease beyond that as was true before the passage of the Act), some may gain seats, and the total in the House of Commons could change.

 

[Finder]

Well I doubt the government will remove seats. No matter how much sence it makes taking seats away will always appear to be un democratic and the party in power at the time will be seen in a negitive light in the region.

 

[FiveParadox]

Use of the Act

The Government does not determine the amount of seats to be given. Upon the conclusion of the next decennial census, the Governor General will be required to establish Commissions for each Province to prepare reports on how the ridings in that Provinces should be readjusted, and whether new ridings need to be added, or whether some should be dropped.

The Government in the House of Commons does not have a lot of say in the matter.

Supplemental Note There is an established formula to decide how many seats are given to a Province, based on its population. I will attempt to find it; I know that I've read it before, I think it's in a Schedule to one of the Statutes of Canada. On to the Library of Parliament! lol

 

[Finder]

In theory yes, but a GG who was.... appointed, for the lack of a better term, by the PM in power before a coming election would not debase the value of a region because this in my opinion would reflect back onto the governing party no matter how much you try to deflect the blame to a third party.. (because that third party was appointed by the first)

 

[FiveParadox]

The Governor General has no say, either, lol. The formula for establishing the Commissions, for how to determine the adjustment of seats, was all established by Parliament when the Act was passed. The officials basically just have to do the math and draft the report, and the Governor General basically proclaims whatever changes the math says need to be done.

There's really no partisanship in the way that seats are adjusted.

 

[Finder]

Re: RE: How the West was Lost...

The Governor General has no say, either, lol. The formula for establishing the Commissions, for how to determine the adjustment of seats, was all established by Parliament when the Act was passed. The officials basically just have to do the math and draft the report, and the Governor General basically proclaims whatever changes the math says need to be done.

There's really no partisanship in the way that seats are adjusted.

proclaimation, is still changing it.
Bah spliting hairs on this one, we already killed the orginally question, and my point is mostly on opinion anyways.

 

[Triple_R]

B.C. has been shafted to a degree. Up to a 1% differential (between the percentage of Canada's totale seats from your province vs. the percentage of Canada's population that lives in your province) is understandable, but anything beyond that is either incredibly sloppy work in seat breakdowns, or a deliberate attempt to reward/shaft a particular province.

I do think that this is part of the reason why B.C. is fluctuating between Conservative and NDP right now, with the Liberals getting squeezed.

 

[FiveParadox]

Triple_R, the problem of having seats that do not reflect a population is because of the time period between censuses. That is not the fault of the Government of Canada.