The View from the West

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

A bigger house, a better democracy

By: Waterloo Region Record

Posted: 04/12/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

How could the cure for what ails Canada be even more federal politicians running around Ottawa?

A lot of people are probably asking this question since Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government announced last week that 30 new members of Parliament will soon be added to the House of Commons, lifting its total number of seats to 338.

The price tag for this expansion will be considerable, about $18 million a year. What about government restraint? Nor are there any guarantees this outlay of cash to put MPs in Parliament will solve the problems facing Canada's political system, such as low voter turnout and too much power in cabinet and the Prime Minister's Office.

Even so, this is the right thing to do. The current composition of the House of Commons has strayed too far from the essential principle of representation by population. It is undemocratic. It is arguably unconstitutional. For the good of the country, for the sake of national unity, it must change. And the best course of action is more MPs.

If you believe in representation by population, it is impossible to see how the 308 Commons seats are distributed and not conclude that a lot of Canadians are being treated differently and unfairly.

For example, with a population of just 135,000 people -- slightly more than Cambridge, Ont. -- Prince Edward Island has four MPs. In most of Canada, that population would be entitled to one MP. The average riding in Alberta has three times the number of people found in a riding in P.E.I.

"The reality today is that 61 per cent of Canadians are under-represented in the House of Commons," concluded a report released last month by the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation at the University of Toronto. This study found that "only Quebec is represented proportionally."

"The residents of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta are significantly under-represented, while the residents of all other provinces and territories have more representatives than their populations would warrant under a strict rep-by-pop standard."

Do numbers matter so much? You bet. Right now, the concerns of voters in some parts of the country carry less weight than the priorities of their fellow citizens in other regions. Immigrants and visible minorities, for example, are under-represented because they overwhelmingly reside in large urban centres. Ridings there typically have far higher populations than their rural counterparts. Over time, such inequities fuel resentment for our political system. Western alienation in Alberta and even B.C. is exacerbated when voters there realize their votes count for less than those cast in other regions.

It's ironic that a driving force for Confederation in 1867 was the desire by voters in Canada West -- now Ontario -- for true representation by population. The Constitution Act of 1982 explicitly commits this country to the rep-by-pop principle.

There are reasons why our government system has deviated so far from representation by population. The government wanted to ensure the voices of voters in small provinces were heard and that the French-speaking minority, mainly in Quebec, was not overwhelmed by the English-speaking majority. But the pendulum has swung too far.

It would be possible, but politically difficult, for the Harper government to redistribute the 308 seats, taking from some provinces, giving to others. The neatest solution is adding 30 -- 18 more for Ontario, seven for B.C. and five for Alberta -- by 2012. The government is wise to follow this course. It is also brave, since many of the seats will be in urban areas where Conservative support has been comparatively low.

This initiative deserves support.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 12, 2010 A11

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