The Seat Shortage: Changing Demographics and Representation in the House of Commons

Ben Tomlin

No 45, e-briefs from C.D. Howe Institute

Abstract: The principle of equal representation by population in Canada, while never perfect in practice, is under increasing duress. To ensure that each province’s representation in the House of Commons reflects its population, Canada’s Constitution requires that the number of seats allocated to each province be recalculated after each decennial census — the next being 2011. Census data and a formula determine how many seats each province receives. However, as it stands, the formula does not account for the provinces’ very different population growth rates and, if it is applied after the next census, the result will be a continued erosion of the voting power of citizens in Canada’s fastest growing provinces: Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

Keywords: governance and public institutions; equal representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H7 J11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 7 pages
Date: 2007-05
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published on C.D. Howe website, May 2007

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cdhowe.org/public-policy-research/seat ... tation-house-commons

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdh:ebrief:45

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in e-briefs from C.D. Howe Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kristine Gray ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).