BC getting six new MPs

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC is going to get six new seats in the House of Commons to try to boost our under-represented population.

Ontario will still get the most new seats with 15.

The representation by population system has almost favoured voter-heavy Ontario and Quebec but the federal government says BC and Alberta’s six new seats each will help better represent our growing populations.

SFU public policy professor Doug McArthur likes it. “I think the rest of the country accepts that BC is a growing province; it is a province with a real future in terms of growth and increase in population.

“I think this is a fair recognition of our situation in terms of the overall population in Canada,” he adds.

Quebec will get three new seats, giving it 23 per cent of the total seats in Parliament.

Heritage Minister James Moore says it’s a re-balancing act, noting Quebec could lose its new seats if its population drops. However, he notes a province can’t have fewer seats than it has senators. He looks to PEI, with 135,000 people and four senators, and by law, at least four HOC seats.

Once the changes are law, “proportionately, those four seats for PEI will be smaller relative to the rest of the House,” he explains. “And over time, as the House of Commons gets bigger to accomodate a larger country, then the imbalance that currently exists for those smaller provinces will become less so.”

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