Why should Quebecers' votes be worth more than ours?
MPS' choice to reject redrawing of federal election map panders to nationalists
Your vote should count as much as my vote. My vote should count as much as your vote.
That's how things should work in a democratic nation, right? We all agree on this basic standard of equality and fairness, correct?
This would seem to be common sense, but that's not the case, at least not in Ottawa, where a large majority of Members of Parliament, including Edmonton MPS, voted in favour of a Bloc Québécois motion that essentially declares all votes in federal elections in Canada aren't equal, that votes in Quebec should count more than votes from Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.
The motion was put forward by Yves-francois Blanchet, leader of the separatist Bloc Québécois. It stated that any scenario for redrawing the federal electoral map that would result in Quebec losing one or more electoral districts or would reduce Quebec's political weight must be rejected.
Blanchet's motion won support of 261 out of the 324 MPS on Tuesday, including Edmonton MPS Randy Boissonnault, a Liberal, and NDPER Blake Desjarlais.
The Liberals, Bloc and NDP almost unanimously supported the Bloc motion, with the Conservatives split on geographic lines, with far less support for the idea in the West.
The motion itself isn't binding. It won't force the Trudeau government to do anything, but only one Liberal MP voted against it, making it a clear indication of the nation's political direction as Elections Canada plods through its once-in-10-years process of redefining our electoral boundaries in each province to reflect changing population trends. The new boundaries will be in place in April 2024.
The redistribution process set out in the Constitution Act of 1867 has many quirks, but its over-arching goal is to end up with a similar number of voters in each riding across Canada. Provinces with a higher percentage of voters compared to a decade ago are to get more seats, while provinces with a lower percentage will stay the same or may lose a seat.
The current controversy erupted because when Elections Canada ran the numbers, it found Alberta should pick up three seats, Ontario and B.C. one each, but that Quebec would lose one.
In his speech to the House, Blanchet tried to make it sound like the notion of one person, one vote, with all votes being equal, isn't a sacred democratic principle, but is just a mindless exercise in unfair number crunching, which should be rejected by MPS using their better judgment: “If the affairs of the state could be managed by statistics alone, then we would need to ask ourselves what we are doing here . ... We cannot allow decisions to be made by statistics.”
Blanchet went on to pronounce: “It is unacceptable that Quebec's weight could be reduced within any kind of Canadian institution at this point in time,” then spoke as the Quebec nationalist he is: “We must not allow ourselves to be weakened. Protecting Quebec's political weight is good for everyone who recognizes the existence of the Quebec nation.”
Edmonton MP Desjarlais defended his vote in favour of the Bloc plan in a statement: “I recognize the tremendous effort of other nations, like the Québécois, in ensuring their identity, culture, and nationhood are protected and continue to play a role in Canada's future.”
On Twitter, however, longtime Montreal Gazette provincial affairs columnist Don Macpherson, who retired in 2020, called out the House vote for what it was, an attempt by political parties to gain favour in seat-rich Quebec. “The pandering to Quebec nationalists by the Canadian parties continues,” he said.
For many Albertans, including me, there's zero appetite to cater to Quebec as long as it demonizes Alberta oil and rejects pipelines, while its provincial government collects billions each year in transfers from Alberta taxpayers.
I'm glad to recognize Quebec as a founding nation. Quebec can go its own way on its own dime as it will.
But that doesn't mean that a vote in Quebec should carry more weight than a vote in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto or Vancouver. Why would it?
It's interesting that most Canadians, including those in Quebec, support the proposed Elections Canada redistribution, which would see Quebec lose a seat. A recent Angus Reid poll found four in five (78 per cent) Canadians, and three in five Quebecers (61 per cent), giving a thumbs-up to the Elections Canada plan.
Of course, unlike political parties in Ottawa, regular Canadians aren't prepared to bend over backward for Quebec. We're simply interested in holding tight to the fairness of a system where everyone's single vote is supposed to carry the same weight, whether you're from Sherwood Park or Shawinigan, Timmins or Trois-rivières.
Unlike political parties in Ottawa, regular Canadians aren't prepared to bend over backward for Quebec.