The federal electoral redistribution of 2012 was a redistribution of electoral districts ("ridings") in Canada following the results of the 2011 Canadian census. As a result of amendments to the Constitution Act, 1867, the number of seats in the House of Commons of Canada increased from 308 to 338. The previous electoral redistribution was in 2003.[1]
Background and previous attempts at reform
[edit]Prior to 2012, the redistribution rules for increasing the number of seats in the House of Commons of Canada was governed by section 51 of the Constitution Act, 1867, as last amended in 1985. As early as 2007, attempts were made to reform the calculation of how that number was determined, as the 1985 formula did not fully take into account the rapid population growth being experienced in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.[2]
The revised formula, as originally presented, was estimated to have the following impact:
Province/territory | Current seats | Projected seats after the 2011 census | |
---|---|---|---|
Under the 1985 formula | Under the new formula | ||
British Columbia | 36 | 38 | 43 |
Alberta | 28 | 29 | 33 |
Saskatchewan | 14 | 14 | 14 |
Manitoba | 14 | 14 | 14 |
Ontario | 106 | 110 | 124 |
Quebec | 75 | 75 | 75 |
New Brunswick | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Nova Scotia | 11 | 11 | 11 |
Prince Edward Island | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Newfoundland and Labrador | 7 | 7 | 7 |
Yukon | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Northwest Territories | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Nunavut | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Total | 308 | 315 | 338 |
Three successive bills were presented by the Government of Canada before its final form was passed by the House of Commons and Senate in 2011.[4]
Passage of the Fair Representation Act (2011)
[edit]The expansion of the House from 308 seats to 338 seats is pursuant to the Fair Representation Act, which came into force on December 16, 2011.[5] In introducing the bill, the government's stated aims were:[6]
- allocating more seats to better reflect population grown in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta;
- maintaining the number of seats for slower-growing provinces; and
- maintaining the proportional representation of Quebec according to population.
The Act replaced s. 51(1) of the Constitution Act, 1867 with the following formula:[7]
- Divide the estimated population of a province by a determined electoral quotient (initially set at 111,166).
- If the number of members determined is less than what a province had in 1985, increase its seat count to that number (the "grandfather clause").
- If a province's population was overrepresented in the House of Commons at the completion of the last redistribution process, and would now be under-represented based on the calculations above, it will be given extra seats so that its share of House of Commons seats is proportional to its share of the population (the "representation rule").
- Add one seat for each of the territories.
The 1985 minimum has two components:
- No province can have fewer MPs than it has senators (the "senatorial clause").[8]
- Otherwise, the calculation determined in 1985 under the Constitution Act, 1985 (Representation) will govern the amount.
Province/territory | July 1, 2011 population estimate |
Initial seat allocation | Senatorial clause | Grandfather clause | Representation rule | Total seats |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
British Columbia | 4,573,321 | 42 | – | – | – | 42 |
Alberta | 3,779,353 | 34 | – | – | – | 34 |
Saskatchewan | 1,057,884 | 10 | – | 4 | – | 14 |
Manitoba | 1,250,574 | 12 | – | 2 | – | 14 |
Ontario | 13,372,996 | 121 | – | – | – | 121 |
Quebec | 7,979,663 | 72 | – | 3 | 3 | 78 |
New Brunswick | 755,455 | 7 | 3 | – | – | 10 |
Nova Scotia | 945,437 | 9 | 1 | 1 | – | 11 |
Prince Edward Island | 145,855 | 2 | 2 | – | – | 4 |
Newfoundland and Labrador | 510,578 | 5 | 1 | 1 | – | 7 |
Yukon | 34,666 | n/a | 1 | |||
Northwest Territories | 43,675 | n/a | 1 | |||
Nunavut | 33,322 | n/a | 1 | |||
Total | 34,482,779 | 338 |
The addition of three seats in Quebec marked the first time since the adoption of the 1985 electoral redistribution formula that any province besides Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia gained new seats.
Process of redistribution
[edit]The allocation of seats to the provinces and territories was based on rules in the Constitution of Canada as well as population estimates made by Statistics Canada based on the 2006 census (in particular, the allocation is based on an estimate for the population as of July 1, 2011, "based on 2006 Census population counts adjusted for census net undercoverage and incompletely enumerated Indian reserves").[9][10]
A final report was tabled October 2013, with the changes proclaimed to take effect as of the first dissolution of Parliament occurring after May 1, 2014.[11] The names of some ridings were changed when the Riding Name Change Act, 2014 came into force on June 19, 2014.[12]
In a report issued in 2014 Elections Canada noted: "While some administrative tasks remained to be done after that point, Elections Canada's role of supporting the federal electoral boundaries commissions, which had worked for up to 18 months in their respective provinces, was complete." The report concluded that "the process for the 2012 redistribution of federal electoral boundaries was a success."[13]
Effect of 2013 representation orders
[edit]Status | BC | AB | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | NS | PE | NL | YT | NT | NU | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New seats[14] | 6 | 7 | 15 | 3 | 31 | |||||||||
Merged seat | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
No change in riding boundary[15] | 2 | 2 | 20 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 44 | |||
Redistributed - change in party ranking | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 11 | |||||||
Redistributed - no change of party | 31 | 26 | 12 | 11 | 84 | 64 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 251 | ||||
Total[14] | 42 | 34 | 14 | 14 | 121 | 78 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 338 |
Party | 2011 (election) | New seats | Merged seat | Adjt + | Adjt - | 2011 (redistributed) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | 34 | 2 | 2 | (2) | 36 | ||
Conservative | 166 | 23 | (1) | 4 | (4) | 188 | |
New Democratic | 103 | 6 | 4 | (4) | 109 | ||
Bloc Québécois | 4 | 1 | (1) | 4 | |||
Green | 1 | 1 | |||||
Total | 308 | 31 | (1) | 11 | (11) | 338 |
Party | BC | AB | SK | MB | ON | QC | NB | PE | NS | NL | Territories | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 28 | 33 | 11 | 11 | 83 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 188 | |
New Democratic | 11 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 24 | 61 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 109 | ||
Liberal | 2 | 1 | 14 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 36 | ||||
Bloc Québécois | 4 | 4 | |||||||||||
Green | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Total | 42 | 34 | 14 | 14 | 121 | 78 | 10 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 338 |
Compared to the House of Commons seat allocation in effect for the 41st Canadian Parliament (which convened in 2011), the changes were as follows:[9]
Province | Seats | ± | Initial report | Final report |
---|---|---|---|---|
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34 | 6 |
|
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42 | 6 |
|
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14 |
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10 |
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||
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|
|||
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1 | A commission was not required for the Northwest Territories since the territory is a single electoral district[22] and under an amendment to the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act it is using the name Northwest Territories again, instead of Western Arctic. | ||
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11 |
|
||
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1 | A commission was not required for Nunavut since the territory is a single electoral district.[22] | ||
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121 | 15 |
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4 |
| ||
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78 | 3 |
|
|
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14 |
|
| |
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1 | A commission was not required for Yukon since the territory is a single electoral district.[22] | ||
Total | 338 | 30 |
References
[edit]- ^ "Redistribution of Federal Electoral Districts". Elections Canada. Archived from the original on 2015-07-08. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
- ^ Barnes, André (16 August 2007). "Bill C-56: An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 (Democratic representation) (LS-561E)". Library of Parliament, Law and Government Division. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
- ^ "Canada's Government Restores Fair Representation in the House of Commons". democraticreform.gc.ca. April 1, 2010. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ Barnes, Andre; Bédard, Michel (7 November 2011). "Legislative Summary of Bill C-20: An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867, the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act and the Canada Elections Act (Publication No. 41-1-C20E)". Library of Parliament, Legal and Legislative Affairs Division. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
- ^ Fair Representation Act, S.C. 2011, c. 26
- ^ "Fair Representation Act Moves Every Province Towards Rep-By-Pop" (Press release). 2011-10-27. Archived from the original on 2013-12-10.
- ^ Fair Representation Act, s. 2
- ^ Constitution Act, 1867, , c. , s. 51A
- ^ a b c "House of Commons Seat Allocation by Province". Elections Canada. Archived from the original on 2015-01-20. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
- ^ "Table 2: Annual population estimates". The Daily. Statistics Canada. 2011-09-28. Archived from the original on 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
- ^ Proclamation declaring the Representation Order to be in Force effective on the First dissolution of Parliament that Occurs after May 1, 2014, SI/2013-102 , reported in the Canada Gazette, Part II, Vol. 147, Extra, October 5, 2013
- ^ Riding Name Change Act, 2014, S.C. 2014, c. 19
- ^ Elections Canada (2014). 2012 Redistribution of Federal Electoral Districts: Process Assessment Report (Report). Ottawa: Elections Canada. pp. 7, 25. Archived from the original on 2023-08-27. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
- ^ a b "House of Commons Seat Allocation by Province 2012 to 2022". elections.ca. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
- ^ "List of unchanged federal electoral districts". elections.ca. Archived from the original on January 9, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
- ^ "Transposition of Votes – 2013 Representation Order". Elections Canada. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-28.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Alberta - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – British Columbia - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2022-11-05. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Manitoba - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – New Brunswick - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Newfoundland and Labrador - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ a b c "Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Nova Scotia - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Ontario - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2022-06-10. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Prince Edward Island - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Quebec - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
- ^ "Proposed Boundaries – Saskatchewan - Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts". www.redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca. Archived from the original on 2022-12-01. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
Further reading
[edit]- 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of British Columbia, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-22193-9.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Alberta, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-22175-5.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Saskatchewan, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-22191-5.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Manitoba, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-21518-1.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Ontario, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-21517-4.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Quebec, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-22187-8.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of New Brunswick, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-22189-2.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-21962-2.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - 2012 Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission (2013). Report of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the Province of Prince Edward Island, 2012 (Report) ([Rev.] ed.). Ottawa: Elections Canada. ISBN 978-1-100-21512-9.
{{cite report}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
External links
[edit]- Official site of the 2012 Federal Electoral Districts Redistribution commissions