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Old 10-15-2008, 12:16 AM   #1260
First Lady
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14 View Post
It is, and Canada is roughly proportional, but to change this would require constitutional amendments. Per the BNA act, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are allotted a minimum of 14 seats. Alberta gets a minimum of 21.

We should be due for redistricting soon, as I don't think it happened after the 2001 census and it is required to be revisited every decade. The thing of it is, MB and SK will not see an increase in seats until their populations grow past 1.4-1.5 million each. Alberta is likely to pick up 3-5 more seats when the boundaries are redrawn, so the proportions will slowly even out.

It is the Maritimes that are massively over-represented because of the constitutional laws. No province can have more Senators than MPs, so while PEI should only have one MP, since they have four Senators, they get three bonus MPs.

It is the Senate where massive reform is required. It's a complete joke that PEI has 4 Senators to Alberta's 6. Either go EEE (which they should do), or redistructure it so that the provinces are more adequately represented.
If I remember correctly redistribution is done every second census; but it takes some time to institute. It was done after the 2001 census and became effective for the 2004 election. So it ends up happening roughly every ten years.
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