What’s wrong with Quebec’s proposed new electoral map
The biggest flaw is that the number of voters in each riding can vary widely
You can’t please everybody, as we are reminded every time Quebec’s electoral representation commission proposes to re-draw the boundaries of the 125 provincial ridings to reflect changes in the distribution of the population.
This time around, the loudest complaints have come from Québec solidaire MNA Manon Massé.
Massé has been leading what so far has been an unsuccessful legal as well as political campaign to preserve her riding of SainteMarie—Saint-Jacques in southcentral Montreal.
In the commission’s latest proposal, the riding would be wiped off the new electoral map on which the general election due next year would be fought. The seat is one of only three won by QS in the last general election and the unofficial “gay seat” in the Assembly, since the riding contains the city’s gay village.
Massé has the support of the official Opposition Parti Québécois, which has a partisan interest of its own in preserving her riding. If it’s eliminated, it would push the popular Massé to the east, to run in neighbouring Hochelaga-Maisonneuve riding, where QS already threatens the present PQ MNA.
Massé isn’t alone in criticizing the new map for Montreal Island. The English-language Quebec Community Groups Network has complained that “the natural community of Westmount, whose unquestionable historical heritage goes back generations,” would be lumped in with the Montreal district of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. This would cost the English-speaking community a seat in the Assembly, the QCGN added.
The commission gave no warning of the proposed changes before they were made public two weeks ago. It offered to hold a public consultation on them, but the Liberal government declined to amend the law to allow for it.
Not all the criticism of the new map is as justified, however.
Mayor Denis Coderre, in supporting Massé, has said that Montreal needs more seats in the Assembly, not fewer. But the island now is over-represented in the Assembly, and eliminating one of its present seats would bring its representation into line with its share of the provincewide electorate.
Anyway, if Montreal lacks influence in provincial politics, it’s not because it doesn’t have enough seats in the Assembly. Rather, it’s because almost all the seats on the island are safe for one party or another, so the parties don’t bother competing for them. Quebec City has only 11 seats, compared to the present 28 on the island, but the seats in the capital region are up for grabs.
The major flaw with the map has received little attention. It’s the large disparities among the numbers of voters in the ridings, which violate the principle of “one voter, one vote.”
Every voter has only one vote, and every riding elects only one MNA. But the fewer voters there are in a riding, the more influence each voter there has in electing the government.
To allow “effective representation” of voters, taking geographical and sociological factors into account, the province’s Election Act sets a general rule that a riding can have up to 25 per cent more or fewer voters than the average for all ridings.
As the electoral representation commission acknowledges, “this leeway is among the highest in Canada.” It allows for a vote in a rural riding to carry up to two-thirds more weight than one in a more densely populated constituency in the fast-growing suburbs on the mainland north and northeast of Montreal.
What’s more, the law allows exceptions to the 25 per cent rule. In the commission’s latest proposal, there are seven of them, all in outlying regions and all with fewer voters than the general rule allows. For example, Gaspé riding would have only half as many voters as Arthabaska southwest of Quebec City.
Under the Election Act, it’s up to the independent commission, not the partisan politicians in the Assembly, to have the final say on the map. The final version is expected to be made public next week. It’s bound to displease somebody.