The Conservative majority is planning to redistribute the legislative seats among the provinces, so they are more proportional to the province’s populations. This means that British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario will receive more seats. I believe this should automatically happen when the census data is released, like in the United States.
However, this seemingly innocuous action (redistributing the seats to be more proportional to the population) is causing some controversy. And, like most controversy in Canada, Quebec is at the centre. I, like many Anglophone Canadians, harbour contempt toward Quebec. The reason for this is that Quebec’s French majority is resentful of being a minority nation-wide (or some such thing). The idea of Quebec separating from Canada is somewhat popular in Quebec, and they use the threat of separation as leverage to gain special privileges. In Canada’s constitution, Quebec is defined as “a distinct society,” giving it a seemingly superior position above the rest of the provinces. Indeed, the Quebecois seem to have a large sense of entitlement, as if they deserve special privileges. And, they are now demanding more seats in the legislature, despite having a disproportionately large number of seats already. The NDP (Canada’s farthest left major party) is apparently supporting this. Quebec is arguably Canada’s most left-wing province, giving the majority of its seats to the NDP in Canada’s most recent federal election (consequentially, the majority of the NDP seats are from Quebec). Personally, I can’t believe anyone is actually taking this seriously. Fortunately, the Conservative majority will not likely allow this to happen.
I could care less whether or not Quebec separates. Pandering to them, however, is completely unacceptable. The fact that it happens in a first-world country is appalling.
