Electoral constituency (Canada)

See also: Electoral constituency

A electoral constituency is a geographical territory in which the population is found on the same electoral roll, and forms the base of the parliamentary Démocratie Canadian. A district is sometimes called county in the popular speech; this comes owing to the fact that historically, the districts were identical to the geographical limits of the counties. (In English, official name is electoral district , although one more often sees the word riding or constituency ).

The electoral constituencies are exclusively uninominal today: each federal district is represented with the House of Commons of Canada by only one Député; the provincial or territorial districts are also represented by only one deputy with the provincial legislature. However, in the past, certain electoral constituencies were plurinominales, as much at the federal level that provincial. In Alberta, some districts were historically represented by to seven deputies simultaneously.

On June 28th 2004, there are 308 federal districts in Canada. Since 1999, the Ontario uses the federal districts in its provincial elections; before this date, the provincial districts did not correspond to the federal districts. The other provinces use all of the different districts on the levels provincial and federal.

For the list of the current federal districts and their deputies, to see 39e legislature of Canada.

Conventions of naming

The names of the federal districts are usually geographical and are selected to represent the community or the area included/understood within the limits of the district. When the name of a district includes more than one geographical designation, it are separated by an indent (—). For example, Toronto— Danforth and Ancaster— Dundas— Flamborough— Westdale. Where a given geographical name contains a hyphen (-), it is not replaced by an indent (ex: Saint-Hyacinthe— Bagot, and not Saint— Hyacinthe— Bagot; Saint-Lambert, not Saint— Lambert.)

Certain federal districts of Quebec, and several provincial districts of the same province, rather bear the name of historical personalities than of the geographical names (ex: Louis-Hébert, Louis-Saint-Laurent, Jean-Lesage). This practice is not employed any more in the other provinces and territories.

When the name of a federal district contains a designation of direction (e.g. Winnipeg-North ) or a toponym of interest side-Canadian as defined by the federal government (e.g. the Rivière Churchill in Desnethé-Missinippi-River Churchill ), the names exist in versions Frenchwoman and English (in these cases, English is Winnipeg North and Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River ). However the names of municipality for the majority are not translated, therefore one uses the forms such as North Vancouver and Quebec in the two official languages.

Recutting of the federal districts

The limits of the districts are adjusted in order to reflect the changes in the population after each decennial Recensement (10 years). All depend on the importance of a recutting, the name of the district can also change. Any adjustment of the limits of district is official in date of the legiferation of the changes, but these changes do not take really effect before the next general election. Thus, a district can cease existing officially, but will be always represented with the House of Commons until the release of an election. This gives time to the new districts to be organized and avoids the confusion which would be generated by changing the designation of district of a deputy elected right in the middle of a legislature.

Sometimes, the name of a district can be changed without a recutting. This generally arrives when it is decided that the existing name is not sufficiently representative of the geographical limits of the district. It is the only circumstance in which the name of district of a deputy in functions can change between two elections.

The current formula for the readjustment of the electoral constituencies was adopted in 1985. It leaves the number of seats at that time to the communes, i.e. 282. A seat is automatically reserved for each territory, it thus remains 279 about it. The total population of the Canadian provinces is then divided by 279, with for result what is called the “  quotient électoral  ”; the population of each province is then divided by this electoral quotient to determine the number of seats to which each province has right.

Finally, some special rules are observed. Under the terms of the “  clause sénatoriale  ”, the number of seats of one province to the House of Commons can never be lower than the number of senators, which raises of a constitutional obligation , without regard to the population of the province. Also, under the terms of the “  clause of the rights acquis  ”, the number of seats of a province can never be lower than than it was at the time of the 33e legislature of Canada.

A province can be seen granting additional seats to ensure conformity with these rules. In 2004, for example, the Island-of-Prince-Edouard would have had right only to one seat, but because of the senatorial clause, the province has three additional seats to equalize its four senators. The Quebec had right only to 68 seats according to the only electoral quotient, but with the clause of the acquired rights, the province obtains seven seats moreover to equalize the 75 seats which it had during the 33e legislature. The Saskatchewan and the Manitoba are entitled also to additional seats in virtue the clause of the acquired rights, the New Brunswick gains seats with the senatorial clause, and the Nova Scotia and Ground-New-and-Labrador benefitted from the two clauses.

A third clause of protection exists, under the terms of which a province cannot lose more than 15% of its seats at the time of the same readjustment; however, the application of this rule was not necessary up to now. Only three provinces (Alberta, Colombia-British and Ontario) could theoretically lose 15% their seats without automatically falling under the protection of the clauses from the acquired rights or senatorial; on date, none of these provinces had to face such a situation.

When the final number of seats of a province is given, an independent commission of delimitation of the federal districts in each province revises the existing limits and proposes adjustments. The opinion of the public is requested by public sittings, which can lead to changes in the final proposal. For example, the limits suggested can accurately not reflect the historical, political or economic relation of a community with the surrounding area; the community could thus warn the commission of delimitation which she wishes being included in a different district.

For example, during the recutting of 2003, the commission of delimitation in Ontario had initially proposed to divide the city of the Grand Sudbury into three districts. The urban core, included in the district of Sudbury, would have been relatively intouchée, while the communities in the west of the urban center would have been amalgamated with Algoma— Manitoulin to form the new district of Large Sudbury— Manitoulin, and those in the east and the north of the city would have been amalgamated with Timiskaming to form the district of Timiskaming— Large Sudbury. Because of the opposition of the community, the existing districts of Sudbury and Nickel Belt were retained in the final report, with only some minor readjustments.

Once the produced final report, it is submitted to the Parliament to obtain its approval, which is obtained as a voter for the report/ratio as for a bill.

Sources

  • Canada Elections in line

See too

External bond

  • Canada Elections: Districts

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