Ottawa

House of Commons math, revisited and revised

How the provinces stack up under the new seat redistribution formula

Tim Uppal, Minister of State for Democratic Reform, will be in Brampton, Ontario tomorrow to make an “important announcement.” According to the CBC that will involve 13 new MPs for Ontario, six for Alberta, five for British Columbia and three for Quebec. That’s one more seat for Quebec than had been reported last week.

Quebec currently has 75 of 308 seats, or 24.35%. The NDP had been calling for that percentage to be matched in any redistribution.

After the 2015 election, Quebec will now have 78 of 335 seats, or 23.28%.

The provinces thus break down under the new formula as follows.

Ontario 38.8% of the population, 35.5% of the seats
Quebec 23.1% and 23.3%
British Columbia 13.3% and 12.2%
Alberta 11.0% and 10.1%
Manitoba 3.6% and 4.2%
Saskatchewan 3.1% and 4.2%
Nova Scotia 2.7% and 3.3%
New Brunswick 2.2% and 3.0%
Newfoundland 1.5% and 2.1%
PEI 0.4% and 1.2%

(Population based on StatsCan data here. Figures rounded.)

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