OTTAWA — The House of Commons would grow by about 10 per cent under legislation introduced Thursday to add 30 new MPs.
Ontario is the big winner, gaining 18 of the new seats. British Columbia would get seven and Alberta five in the expanded, 338-seat House.
Representation for the other provinces stays the same.
Political reaction was immediate, with the Bloc Quebecois angry and the Liberals and New Democrats urging calm deliberation.
Steven Fletcher — minister of state for democratic reform — said the idea is to give greater representation to the faster-growing regions of the country.
“If passed, this legislation will give fair representation to the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, while protecting the seat counts of the other provinces,” he said.
Without the adjustment, it’s estimated the average riding in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia would have almost 120,000 voters by next year, well above the national average.
A similar bill was introduced in 2007, but was withdrawn when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty complained loudly that his province would remain under-represented.
That led to some angry back-and-forth between Ottawa and Toronto, but the bill died.
The new version gets an OK from Ontario.
“Initially they weren’t going to increase the number of seats and were going to turn a blind eye to the actual numbers, so I’m glad that they’ve seen the light on that,” said provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.
“My understanding is these things are done based on population increases. ... So, yes, I’m glad they’re doing that. It simply reflects the growth in the Ontario population.
“We’ll look forward to working with however many federal members there are from Ontario.”
The Bloc Quebecois, however, accused the Conservative government of diluting Quebec’s political weight in an effort to add more winnable seats in the West.
“This is nothing more than partisan manoeuvring on the backs of the people of Quebec,” Bloc MP Claude DeBellefeuille said the Commons.
In the past, there have been suggestions that Quebec should have a guarantee of at least a quarter of all Commons seats.
Quebec has 24.3 per cent of the present 308 seats, but that share would fall to 22.2 per cent in the expanded House.
Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis said seat distribution isn’t his main worry.
“We have to go with that core principle of rep by pop (representation by population),” he said. “I wouldn’t be happy to be under-represented.”