Electoral district (Canada)
Encyclopedia
An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada
's representative democracy
is based. It is officially known in Canadian French
as a circonscription, but frequently called a comté (county).
Federal electoral districts each return one Member of Parliament
(MP) to the Canadian House of Commons
; provincial or territorial
electoral districts each return one representative — called, depending on the province or territory, Member of the Legislative Assembly
(MLA), Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) or Member of the House of Assembly
(MHA) — to the provincial or territorial legislature.
While electoral districts in Canada are now exclusively single-member districts, in the past, multiple-member districts were used at both the federal and provincial levels. Alberta had a few districts in its history that returned from two up to seven members: see Calgary
, Edmonton
and Medicine Hat
. British Columbia had a mix of multiple-member districts in Vancouver
and single-member districts elsewhere until the 1991 election
, and Prince Edward Island had dual-member districts until the 1996 election
.
As of June 28, 2004, there were 308 federal electoral districts in Canada, although the government of Stephen Harper
has proposed an amendment, which has not yet been passed, that would increase the number to 338 for the 2015 election. One province, Ontario
, uses the same boundaries for the electoral districts for its Legislative Assembly in Southern Ontario
, while seats in Northern Ontario
correspond to the federal districts that were in place before the 2004 adjustment. The other provinces use different electoral districts for their legislatures. Ontario had separate provincial ridings prior to 1999.
Elections Canada
is the independent body set up by Parliament to oversee Canadian federal elections.
, to divide counties with sufficient population to multiple electoral divisions; these became unofficially known as ridings, from an archaic British term denoting a subdivision of a county. In some of Canada's earliest census
es, in fact, some citizens in the ridings of Bothwell, Cardwell, Monck and Niagara listed their electoral district as their "county" of residence instead of their actual county.
Soon after Confederation, the urban population grew — and more importantly, most city dwellers gained the franchise after property ownership was no longer required to gain the vote. Rural constituencies therefore became geographically larger through the 20th century and generally encompassed one or more counties each, and the word "riding" was then used to refer to any electoral division.
A political party's local organization is generally known as a riding association
.
and Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale
(but Cape Breton—Canso
, not Cape—Breton—Canso, as "Cape Breton" is a single geographic name.) Where a single geographic name contains a hyphen, that is also not replaced by an em dash (e.g., Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot
, not Saint—Hyacinthe—Bagot; Saint-Lambert
, not Saint—Lambert.) Where a district's name includes a geographic designation and an ordinal direction (e.g., Calgary Centre
), there is generally no punctuation between the two words or phrases.
Some electoral districts in Quebec are named for historical figures rather than geography (e.g., Louis-Hébert
, Honoré-Mercier
); these contain hyphens between the words, not em dashes. Similarly in Alberta provincial districts mix geographic names with those of historical personages (e.g. Edmonton-Decore after Laurence Decore
, Calgary-Lougheed after Peter Lougheed
and James Alexander Lougheed
). This practice is no longer employed in the other provinces and territories.
Some ridings, especially ridings with large numbers of both francophone and anglophone voters, may be named or punctuated differently in English and French. The Manitoba riding of Saint Boniface
, for example, is referred to in French as "Saint-Boniface", with a hyphen.
Depending on local convention, however, provincial electoral districts may use a hyphen instead of an em dash in this context.
. Depending on the significance of a boundary change, an electoral district's name may change as well. Any adjustment of electoral district boundaries is official as of the date the changes are legislated, but is not put into actual effect until the first subsequent election. Thus, an electoral district may officially cease to exist, but will continue to be represented status quo in the House of Commons until the next election is called. This, for example, gives new riding associations time to organize, and prevents the confusion that would result from changing elected MPs' electoral district assignments in the middle of a Parliament.
On some occasions (e.g. Timiskaming—French River, Toronto—Danforth
), a riding's name may be changed without a boundary adjustment. This usually happens when it is determined at a later date that the existing name is not sufficiently representative of the district's geographic boundaries. This is the only circumstance in which a sitting MP's riding name may change between elections.
Finally, a few special rules are applied. Under the "senatorial clause", a province's number of seats in the House of Commons can never be lower than its constitutionally mandated number of senators
, regardless of the province's population. Under the "grandfather clause", the province's number of seats can also never fall below the number of seats it had in the 33rd Canadian parliament
.
A province may be allocated extra seats over its base entitlement to ensure that these rules are met. In 2004, for example, Prince Edward Island
would have been entitled to only a single seat according to the electoral quotient, but through the senatorial clause the province gained three more seats to equal its four senators. Quebec
was only entitled to 68 seats by the electoral quotient alone, but through the grandfather clause the province gained seven seats to equal the 75 seats it had in the 33rd Parliament. Saskatchewan
and Manitoba
also gained seats under the grandfather clause, New Brunswick
gained seats under the senatorial clause, and Nova Scotia
and Newfoundland and Labrador
gained seats under both clauses.
A third protection clause exists, under which a province may not lose more than 15 per cent of its seats in a single adjustment, but specific application of this rule has never been needed. Only three provinces, Alberta
, British Columbia
and Ontario
, could lose 15 per cent of their current seat allotment without automatically triggering the senatorial or grandfather clauses; to date, none of these provinces have ever faced this situation.
Some sources incorrectly state that a special provision guaranteeing a certain number of seats to Quebec is also applied. While such a provision was proposed in the failed Charlottetown Accord
, no such rule currently exists — Quebec's seat allotment in the House of Commons is in fact governed by the same adjustment clauses as all other provinces, and not by any provisions unique to Quebec alone.
In 2008 the government of Stephen Harper
proposed an amendment to the process which would have seen Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, the three provinces whose electoral districts currently have an average size larger than those in Quebec, given a total of 32 additional seats by applying Quebec's average of 105,000. The measure initially included only British Columbia and Alberta, and was widely characterized as a "seat grab" meant to inflate the number of reliably Conservative
seats; Harper later compromised by proposing an alternative plan which included Ontario. However, opposition then emerged in Quebec, where politicians expressed concern about the province losing clout in Ottawa if its proportion of seats in the House of Commons was reduced. The measure did not pass before the 2011 election was called, but was put forward again after the election.
For example, in the 2003 boundary adjustment, the boundary commission in Ontario originally proposed dividing the city of Greater Sudbury into three districts. The urban core would have remained largely unchanged as Sudbury
, while communities west of the central city would have been merged with Algoma—Manitoulin to form the new riding of Greater Sudbury—Manitoulin, and those east and north of the central city would have been merged with Timiskaming
to create the riding of Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury.
Due to the region's economic and transportation patterns, however, "Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury" was particularly opposed by its potential residents — voters in Sudbury were concerned about the weakening of their representation if the city was divided into one city-based riding and two large rural ones rather than two city-based ridings, while the Timiskaming District
is much more strongly aligned with and connected to North Bay
, to which it has a direct highway link, than to Sudbury. In a deputation to the boundary commission, Sudbury's deputy mayor Ron Dupuis stated that "An electoral district must be more than a mere conglomeration of arbitrary and random groups of individuals. Districts should, as much as possible, be cohesive units with common interests related to representation. This makes a representative’s job of articulating the interests of his or her constituency much easier." Instead, in the final report that was passed by the House of Commons, the Sudbury area's existing ridings of Sudbury and Nickel Belt
were retained with only minor boundary adjustments, while the Timiskaming riding was merged with Nipissing
.
Once the final report is produced, it is then submitted to Parliament for approval, which is given by voting on the report as a piece of legislation known as a Representation Order.
is not generally seen as a major issue in Canada. However, in 2006 the provincial government of Prince Edward Island
was accused of gerrymandering after it rejected the independent boundary commission's report and instead proposed a new map which would have seen the cities of Charlottetown
and Summerside
each gain one additional seat, with two fewer seats allocated to rural areas of the province. The alternate map gave every incumbent member of the governing party a "safe" seat to run in, while the original report would have forced some of the party's MLAs to compete against each other in nomination contests.
The unequal size of electoral districts across Canada has sometimes given rise to discussion of whether all Canadians enjoy equal democratic representation by population. For example, the four electoral districts in Prince Edward Island have an average size of just 33,963 voters each, while electoral districts in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia have an average size of over 125,000 voters each — only slightly smaller, in fact, than the entire population of Prince Edward Island — and the four Atlantic Provinces combined have a total of 32 seats, more than Alberta even though this province has a significantly larger population than the total population of the Atlantic provinces.
Conversely, pure representation by population creates distinct disadvantages for some Canadians, giving rise to frequent debate about how to balance the population size of electoral districts against their geographic size. Whereas urban districts, such as Toronto Centre
, Vancouver Quadra
or Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine
, may be as small as 50 km2 or less, more rural districts, such as Timmins—James Bay
, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou
or Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River
may encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of square kilometres in size. Thus, while Canadians who reside in major urban centres typically live within walking distance of their federal or provincial representatives' constituency offices, a rural politician who represents dozens of geographically dispersed small towns must normally incur much greater travel expenses, being forced to drive for several hours, or even to travel by air, in order to visit parts of their own district — and may even need to maintain more than one constituency office in order to properly represent all of their constituents. In Ontario, for example, the highest annual expense budgets among members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
are consistently filed by the representatives for the province's two largest and northernmost electoral districts; both must spend far more on travel to and from Toronto, travel within their own ridings and additional support staff in multiple communities within their ridings than any other legislator in the province.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's representative democracy
Representative democracy
Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...
is based. It is officially known in Canadian French
Canadian French
Canadian French is an umbrella term referring to the varieties of French spoken in Canada. French is the mother tongue of nearly seven million Canadians, a figure constituting roughly 22% of the national population. At the federal level it has co-official status alongside English...
as a circonscription, but frequently called a comté (county).
Federal electoral districts each return one Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) to the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
; provincial or territorial
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
electoral districts each return one representative — called, depending on the province or territory, Member of the Legislative Assembly
Member of the Legislative Assembly
A Member of the Legislative Assembly or a Member of the Legislature , is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to the legislature or legislative assembly of a sub-national jurisdiction....
(MLA), Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) or Member of the House of Assembly
Member of the House of Assembly
A Member of the House of Assembly is a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly in Canada.Other Provinces and TerritoriesMembers of other Canadian provincial and territorial assemblies employ the titles:...
(MHA) — to the provincial or territorial legislature.
While electoral districts in Canada are now exclusively single-member districts, in the past, multiple-member districts were used at both the federal and provincial levels. Alberta had a few districts in its history that returned from two up to seven members: see Calgary
Calgary (provincial electoral district)
Calgary was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada that existed from 1905 to 1913 and was recreated from 1921 to 1959. The district returned from one to six members to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta...
, Edmonton
Edmonton (provincial electoral district)
Edmonton provincial electoral district existed in two incarnations from 1905 - 1909 and again from 1921 - 1955. The district was created when Alberta first became a province....
and Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat (provincial electoral district)
Medicine Hat is an Albertan provincial electoral district, covering most of the city of Medicine Hat.Under the Alberta electoral boundary re-distribution of 2004, the constituency covers the portion of the city north of the South Saskatchewan River, the Trans-Canada Highway and Carry Drive...
. British Columbia had a mix of multiple-member districts in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and single-member districts elsewhere until the 1991 election
British Columbia general election, 1991
The British Columbia general election of 1991 was the 35th provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on September 19, 1991, and held on October 17, 1991...
, and Prince Edward Island had dual-member districts until the 1996 election
Prince Edward Island general election, 1996
thumb|Map of PEI's ridings showing winning parties and their popular vote.The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island conducted a general election on November 18, 1996 to elect the 27 members of the Island legislature...
.
As of June 28, 2004, there were 308 federal electoral districts in Canada, although the government of Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
has proposed an amendment, which has not yet been passed, that would increase the number to 338 for the 2015 election. One province, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, uses the same boundaries for the electoral districts for its Legislative Assembly in Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a region of the province of Ontario, Canada that lies south of the French River and Algonquin Park. Depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts, its surface area would cover between 14 to 15% of the province. It is the southernmost region of...
, while seats in Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...
correspond to the federal districts that were in place before the 2004 adjustment. The other provinces use different electoral districts for their legislatures. Ontario had separate provincial ridings prior to 1999.
Elections Canada
Elections Canada
Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. Its ongoing responsibility is to ensure that Canadians can exercise their choices in federal elections and referenda through an open and impartial process...
is the independent body set up by Parliament to oversee Canadian federal elections.
Terminology
Originally, most electoral districts were equivalent to the counties used for local government, hence the French unofficial term comté. However, it became common, especially in OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, to divide counties with sufficient population to multiple electoral divisions; these became unofficially known as ridings, from an archaic British term denoting a subdivision of a county. In some of Canada's earliest census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
es, in fact, some citizens in the ridings of Bothwell, Cardwell, Monck and Niagara listed their electoral district as their "county" of residence instead of their actual county.
Soon after Confederation, the urban population grew — and more importantly, most city dwellers gained the franchise after property ownership was no longer required to gain the vote. Rural constituencies therefore became geographically larger through the 20th century and generally encompassed one or more counties each, and the word "riding" was then used to refer to any electoral division.
A political party's local organization is generally known as a riding association
Riding association
In Canadian politics a riding association , officially called an electoral district association is the basic unit of a political party, that is it is the party's organization at the level of the electoral district, or "riding"...
.
Naming conventions
Electoral district names are usually geographic in nature, and chosen to represent the community or region within the electoral district boundaries. Where a federal district's name includes more than one geographic designation, it is properly denoted with an em dash (—) between each distinct geographic name, for example Toronto—DanforthToronto—Danforth
Toronto—Danforth is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979. It lies to the east of Downtown Toronto....
and Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale
Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale
Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004....
(but Cape Breton—Canso
Cape Breton—Canso
Cape Breton—Canso is a federal electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004. Its population in 2001 was 75,221...
, not Cape—Breton—Canso, as "Cape Breton" is a single geographic name.) Where a single geographic name contains a hyphen, that is also not replaced by an em dash (e.g., Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot
Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot
Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot is a federal electoral district that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1935. It is located in Quebec, Canada. Its population in 2006 was 95,983.-Geography:...
, not Saint—Hyacinthe—Bagot; Saint-Lambert
Saint-Lambert (electoral district)
Saint-Lambert is a federal electoral district in the Canadian province of Quebec. It has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1997. Its population in 2006 was 94,541.-Geography:...
, not Saint—Lambert.) Where a district's name includes a geographic designation and an ordinal direction (e.g., Calgary Centre
Calgary Centre
Calgary Centre is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1968. It is an 42 km² riding in the city of Calgary with 124,197 people. The riding consists of many young adults who have a relatively high average household income...
), there is generally no punctuation between the two words or phrases.
Some electoral districts in Quebec are named for historical figures rather than geography (e.g., Louis-Hébert
Louis-Hébert (electoral district)
Louis-Hébert is a federal electoral district in the Canadian province of Quebec. Represented in the House of Commons since 2004, its population was certified, according to the detailed statistics of 2001, as 98,156.-Geography:...
, Honoré-Mercier
Honoré-Mercier (electoral district)
Honoré-Mercier is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1988. Its population in 2006 was 106,196.-Geography:...
); these contain hyphens between the words, not em dashes. Similarly in Alberta provincial districts mix geographic names with those of historical personages (e.g. Edmonton-Decore after Laurence Decore
Laurence Decore
Laurence G. Decore, CM was a Ukrainian-Canadian lawyer and politician from Alberta. He was mayor of Edmonton, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and leader of the Alberta Liberal Party.- Early life :...
, Calgary-Lougheed after Peter Lougheed
Peter Lougheed
Edgar Peter Lougheed, PC, CC, AOE, QC, is a Canadian lawyer, and a former politician and Canadian Football League player. He served as the tenth Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985....
and James Alexander Lougheed
James Alexander Lougheed
Sir James Alexander Lougheed, KCMG, PC, QC was a businessman and politician from Alberta, Canada.-Early Life:Lougheed was born in Brampton, Canada West, to Irish Protestant parents. The family moved to Weston, Canada West , when Lougheed was a child, and he attended King Street Public School Sir...
). This practice is no longer employed in the other provinces and territories.
Some ridings, especially ridings with large numbers of both francophone and anglophone voters, may be named or punctuated differently in English and French. The Manitoba riding of Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface (electoral district)
Saint Boniface is a federal electoral district that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1925. It is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.In 1996, its English name was changed from "St. Boniface" to "Saint Boniface"....
, for example, is referred to in French as "Saint-Boniface", with a hyphen.
Depending on local convention, however, provincial electoral districts may use a hyphen instead of an em dash in this context.
Boundary adjustment
Electoral district boundaries are adjusted to reflect population changes after each decennial censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
. Depending on the significance of a boundary change, an electoral district's name may change as well. Any adjustment of electoral district boundaries is official as of the date the changes are legislated, but is not put into actual effect until the first subsequent election. Thus, an electoral district may officially cease to exist, but will continue to be represented status quo in the House of Commons until the next election is called. This, for example, gives new riding associations time to organize, and prevents the confusion that would result from changing elected MPs' electoral district assignments in the middle of a Parliament.
On some occasions (e.g. Timiskaming—French River, Toronto—Danforth
Toronto—Danforth
Toronto—Danforth is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979. It lies to the east of Downtown Toronto....
), a riding's name may be changed without a boundary adjustment. This usually happens when it is determined at a later date that the existing name is not sufficiently representative of the district's geographic boundaries. This is the only circumstance in which a sitting MP's riding name may change between elections.
Formula
The present formula for adjusting electoral boundaries was adopted in 1985. It starts with the number of seats in Parliament at that time, 282. One seat is automatically allocated to each of Canada's three territories, leaving 279. The total population of Canada's provinces is thus divided by 279, resulting in an "electoral quotient", and then the population of each individual province is divided by this electoral quotient to determine the number of seats to which the province is officially entitled.Finally, a few special rules are applied. Under the "senatorial clause", a province's number of seats in the House of Commons can never be lower than its constitutionally mandated number of senators
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
, regardless of the province's population. Under the "grandfather clause", the province's number of seats can also never fall below the number of seats it had in the 33rd Canadian parliament
33rd Canadian Parliament
The 33rd Canadian Parliament was in session from November 5, 1984 until October 1, 1988. The membership was set by the 1984 federal election on September 4, 1984, and it only changed slightly due to resignations and by-elections prior to being dissolved before the 1988 election.It was controlled...
.
A province may be allocated extra seats over its base entitlement to ensure that these rules are met. In 2004, for example, Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
would have been entitled to only a single seat according to the electoral quotient, but through the senatorial clause the province gained three more seats to equal its four senators. Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
was only entitled to 68 seats by the electoral quotient alone, but through the grandfather clause the province gained seven seats to equal the 75 seats it had in the 33rd Parliament. Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
and Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
also gained seats under the grandfather clause, New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
gained seats under the senatorial clause, and Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
and Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
gained seats under both clauses.
A third protection clause exists, under which a province may not lose more than 15 per cent of its seats in a single adjustment, but specific application of this rule has never been needed. Only three provinces, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, could lose 15 per cent of their current seat allotment without automatically triggering the senatorial or grandfather clauses; to date, none of these provinces have ever faced this situation.
Some sources incorrectly state that a special provision guaranteeing a certain number of seats to Quebec is also applied. While such a provision was proposed in the failed Charlottetown Accord
Charlottetown Accord
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated.-Background:...
, no such rule currently exists — Quebec's seat allotment in the House of Commons is in fact governed by the same adjustment clauses as all other provinces, and not by any provisions unique to Quebec alone.
In 2008 the government of Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
proposed an amendment to the process which would have seen Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, the three provinces whose electoral districts currently have an average size larger than those in Quebec, given a total of 32 additional seats by applying Quebec's average of 105,000. The measure initially included only British Columbia and Alberta, and was widely characterized as a "seat grab" meant to inflate the number of reliably Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
seats; Harper later compromised by proposing an alternative plan which included Ontario. However, opposition then emerged in Quebec, where politicians expressed concern about the province losing clout in Ottawa if its proportion of seats in the House of Commons was reduced. The measure did not pass before the 2011 election was called, but was put forward again after the election.
Boundary review
When the province's final seat allotment is determined, an independent election boundaries commission in each province reviews the existing boundaries and proposes adjustments. Public input is then sought, which may then lead to changes in the final boundary proposal. For instance, the proposed boundaries may not accurately reflect a community's historical, political or economic relationship with its surrounding region; the community would thus advise the boundary commission that it wished to be included in a different electoral district.For example, in the 2003 boundary adjustment, the boundary commission in Ontario originally proposed dividing the city of Greater Sudbury into three districts. The urban core would have remained largely unchanged as Sudbury
Sudbury (electoral district)
Sudbury is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1949.Its population in 2001 was 89,443. The district is one of two serving the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario....
, while communities west of the central city would have been merged with Algoma—Manitoulin to form the new riding of Greater Sudbury—Manitoulin, and those east and north of the central city would have been merged with Timiskaming
Timiskaming (electoral district)
Timiskaming was a federal electoral district in the northeastern part of Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1917 to 1925, and from 1935 to 1997....
to create the riding of Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury.
Due to the region's economic and transportation patterns, however, "Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury" was particularly opposed by its potential residents — voters in Sudbury were concerned about the weakening of their representation if the city was divided into one city-based riding and two large rural ones rather than two city-based ridings, while the Timiskaming District
Timiskaming District, Ontario
Timiskaming is a district and census division in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district was created in 1912 from parts of Algoma, Nipissing, and Sudbury districts. In 1921, Cochrane District was created from parts of this district and parts of Thunder Bay...
is much more strongly aligned with and connected to North Bay
North Bay, Ontario
North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing.-History:...
, to which it has a direct highway link, than to Sudbury. In a deputation to the boundary commission, Sudbury's deputy mayor Ron Dupuis stated that "An electoral district must be more than a mere conglomeration of arbitrary and random groups of individuals. Districts should, as much as possible, be cohesive units with common interests related to representation. This makes a representative’s job of articulating the interests of his or her constituency much easier." Instead, in the final report that was passed by the House of Commons, the Sudbury area's existing ridings of Sudbury and Nickel Belt
Nickel Belt
Nickel Belt is one of two federal electoral districts serving the Greater City of Sudbury.Nickel Belt has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1953.It consists of:...
were retained with only minor boundary adjustments, while the Timiskaming riding was merged with Nipissing
Nipissing (electoral district)
Nipissing was a federal electoral district that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1896 to 2004. It was located in the northeastern part of Ontario, Canada....
.
Once the final report is produced, it is then submitted to Parliament for approval, which is given by voting on the report as a piece of legislation known as a Representation Order.
Political issues
Because electoral district boundaries are proposed by an arms-length body, rather than directly by political parties themselves, gerrymanderingGerrymandering
In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts...
is not generally seen as a major issue in Canada. However, in 2006 the provincial government of Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
was accused of gerrymandering after it rejected the independent boundary commission's report and instead proposed a new map which would have seen the cities of Charlottetown
Charlottetown
Charlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...
and Summerside
Summerside, Prince Edward Island
Summerside is a Canadian city in Prince County, Prince Edward Island. It is the second largest city in the province and the principal municipality for the western part of the island.- History :...
each gain one additional seat, with two fewer seats allocated to rural areas of the province. The alternate map gave every incumbent member of the governing party a "safe" seat to run in, while the original report would have forced some of the party's MLAs to compete against each other in nomination contests.
The unequal size of electoral districts across Canada has sometimes given rise to discussion of whether all Canadians enjoy equal democratic representation by population. For example, the four electoral districts in Prince Edward Island have an average size of just 33,963 voters each, while electoral districts in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia have an average size of over 125,000 voters each — only slightly smaller, in fact, than the entire population of Prince Edward Island — and the four Atlantic Provinces combined have a total of 32 seats, more than Alberta even though this province has a significantly larger population than the total population of the Atlantic provinces.
Conversely, pure representation by population creates distinct disadvantages for some Canadians, giving rise to frequent debate about how to balance the population size of electoral districts against their geographic size. Whereas urban districts, such as Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto , Toronto Centre , Rosedale and Toronto Centre—Rosedale .Toronto Centre covers the heart of...
, Vancouver Quadra
Vancouver Quadra
Vancouver Quadra is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1949....
or Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1997...
, may be as small as 50 km2 or less, more rural districts, such as Timmins—James Bay
Timmins—James Bay
Timmins—James Bay is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1997. Its population in 2001 was 84,001....
, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou
Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou
Abitibi and Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou is a federal riding in the province of Quebec, Canada, that have been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1966."Abitibi" was created in 1966, and renamed "Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik"...
or Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River
Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River
Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River is a federal electoral district in Saskatchewan, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1997.-Demographics:...
may encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of square kilometres in size. Thus, while Canadians who reside in major urban centres typically live within walking distance of their federal or provincial representatives' constituency offices, a rural politician who represents dozens of geographically dispersed small towns must normally incur much greater travel expenses, being forced to drive for several hours, or even to travel by air, in order to visit parts of their own district — and may even need to maintain more than one constituency office in order to properly represent all of their constituents. In Ontario, for example, the highest annual expense budgets among members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
are consistently filed by the representatives for the province's two largest and northernmost electoral districts; both must spend far more on travel to and from Toronto, travel within their own ridings and additional support staff in multiple communities within their ridings than any other legislator in the province.
See also
- Electoral districtElectoral districtAn electoral district is a distinct territorial subdivision for holding a separate election for one or more seats in a legislative body...
- List of Canadian federal electoral districts
- Past Canadian electoral districts
- Canadian provincial electoral districtsCanadian provincial electoral districtsCanadian provincial electoral districts have boundaries that are non-coterminous with those of the federal electoral districts, except for districts in the province of Ontario, where districts outside of Northern Ontario are coterminous....
- Population of Canadian federal ridingsPopulation of Canadian federal ridingsThis is a list of Canada's 308 federal electoral districts as defined by the 2003 Representation Order, which came into effect on May 23, 2004. The ridings are organized by population....