76-655: Powell River-Sunshine Coast is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia , Canada. Current MLA Randene Neill was elected to represent the riding during the 2024 BC election . She is a member of the BC NDP. Prior to entering politics she was a television news journalist for Global BC for over 20 years, until her departure in 2017.She was appointed Minister of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship on November 18th 2024. Former MLA's The first MLA to represent
152-556: A pantheon representing significant events and people of the history of Quebec. In 1936, Maurice Duplessis hung a crucifix in the Legislative Assembly chamber. It hung there for 83 years, until it was removed on 10 July 2019. Additional buildings were added, adjacent to the Parliament Buildings: General elections are held every four years or less. Since 2014, the legislature has had
228-481: A district at each election. In the case of Ontario , Toronto in 1886 and 1890 was a multi-member provincial district. Limited voting was used to ensure mixed representation and voter satisfaction. From 1908 to 1914, the four Toronto districts elected two MLAs each. With just a few exceptions, voters in multiple-member districts were able to cast as many votes as there were seats in the district ( block voting ). Usually, under block voting, one single party took all
304-498: A few variances from federal boundaries. The ward boundaries of Toronto City Council also correspond to federal electoral district boundaries, although they are numbered rather than using the federal names. Elections Canada is the independent body set up by Parliament to oversee Canadian federal elections , while each province and territory has its own separate elections agency to oversee the provincial and territorial elections. Originally, most electoral districts were equivalent to
380-504: A fixed four-year term, with elections taking place no later than "the first Monday of October of the fourth calendar year following the year that includes the last day of the previous Legislature." However, the lieutenant governor , acting on the advice of the premier , can dissolve the legislature and call an election earlier. Any Canadian citizen at least 18 years old who has been residing in Quebec for at least six months qualifies to be on
456-580: A mere conglomeration of arbitrary and random groups of individuals. Districts should, as much as possible, be cohesive units with common interests related to representation. This makes a representative's job of articulating the interests of his or her constituency much easier." Instead, in the final report that was passed by the House of Commons, the Sudbury area's existing ridings of Sudbury and Nickel Belt were retained with only minor boundary adjustments, while
532-608: A new Parliament of the Province of Canada , also composed of a Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly. That Parliament had jurisdiction over the entire province, with members from Lower Canada and Upper Canada in both houses. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly known as the British North America Act), created the Dominion of Canada, and also created the provinces of Ontario and Quebec by splitting
608-580: A new map that would have seen the cities of Charlottetown and Summerside each gain one additional seat, with two fewer seats allocated to rural areas of the province. The alternate map gave every incumbent member of the governing party a "safe" seat to run in, while the original report would have forced some of the party's MLAs to compete against each other in nomination contests. The unequal size of electoral districts across Canada has sometimes given rise to discussion of whether all Canadians enjoy equal democratic representation by population . For example,
684-400: A riding's name may be changed without a boundary adjustment. This usually happens when it is determined at a later date that the existing name is not sufficiently representative of the district's geographic boundaries. This is the only circumstance in which a sitting MP's riding name may change between elections. The number of electoral districts for first federal election in 1867 were set by
760-564: A rural resident may not even be able to call their federal or provincial representative's constituency offices without incurring long-distance calling charges. Further, a rural politician who represents dozens of geographically dispersed small towns must normally incur much greater travel expenses, being forced to drive for several hours, or even to travel by air, in order to visit parts of their own district—and may even need to maintain more than one constituency office in order to properly represent all of their constituents. In Ontario, for example,
836-632: A towering central belfry, Quebec City's Parliament Building bears a definite likeness to the Philadelphia City Hall , another Second Empire edifice in North America which was built during the same period. Even though the building's symmetrical layout with a frontal clock tower in the middle is typical of legislative institutions of British heritage, the architectural style is believed to be unique among parliament buildings found in other Canadian provincial capitals. Its façade presents
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#1732781153176912-629: Is a geographical constituency upon which Canada 's representative democracy is based. It is officially known in Canadian French as a circonscription but frequently called a comté ( county ). In Canadian English it is also colloquially and more commonly known as a riding or constituency . Each federal electoral district returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of Canada ; each provincial or territorial electoral district returns one representative—called, depending on
988-497: Is an English term denoting a sub-division of a county. In some of Canada's earliest censuses , in fact, some citizens in the Ontario ridings of Bothwell , Cardwell , Monck and Niagara listed their electoral district as their "county" of residence instead of their actual county. Although the term "riding" is no longer used officially to indicate an electoral district, it has passed into common usage. Soon after Confederation ,
1064-414: Is determined, an independent election boundaries commission in each province reviews the existing boundaries and proposes adjustments. Public input is then sought, which may then lead to changes in the final boundary proposal. For instance, the proposed boundaries may not accurately reflect a community's historical, political or economic relationship with its surrounding region; the community would thus advise
1140-404: Is generally known as a riding association ; the legal term is electoral district association or EDA. While electoral districts at both the federal and provincial levels are now exclusively single-member districts , multiple-member districts have been used in the past. The federal riding of Ottawa elected two members from 1872 to 1933. The federal riding of Halifax elected two members from
1216-414: Is no longer employed in the other provinces and territories. Electoral district boundaries are adjusted to reflect population changes after each decennial census . Depending on the significance of a boundary change, an electoral district's name may change as well. Any adjustment of electoral district boundaries is official as of the date the changes are legislated, but is not put into actual effect until
1292-621: Is produced, it is then submitted to Parliament, MPs may offer objections to the boundaries, but the boundary commissions are not compelled to make any changes as a result of the objections. At Canadian Confederation , the boundaries were defined by the Constitution Act, 1867 . Boundaries for one or more electoral districts were updated in 1872, 1882, 1892, 1903, 1914, 1924, 1933, and 1947. Subsequent changes are known as Representation Order , and occurred in 1952, 1966, 1976, 1987, 1996, 2003, 2013 and 2023. Such changes come into force "on
1368-663: Is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; French: députés ). The lieutenant governor of Quebec (representing the King of Canada ) and the National Assembly compose the Legislature of Quebec , which operates in a fashion similar to those of other Westminster-style parliamentary systems . The assembly has 125 members elected first past
1444-460: Is the first order of business for a newly elected assembly. It is conducted by secret ballot of all members, with successive rounds of voting if needed before one candidate gains a majority of the votes. The president of the assembly is the arbiter of the parliamentary debates between the members of the government and the members of the Opposition. In order for a member to address the assembly,
1520-531: The Constitution Act, 1867 on the principle of representation by population. The Act provided Quebec a minimum of 65 seats and seat allotment for the remainder of the country was based by dividing the average population of Quebec's 65 electoral districts to determine the number of seats for other provinces. The Act also specified that distribution and boundary reviews should occur after each 10 year census. The boundaries for Quebec's seats were based on
1596-799: The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has the most seats in the Assembly. The Constitutional Act 1791 created the Parliament of Lower Canada . It consisted of two chambers, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. That parliament and both chambers were abolished in 1841 when the Act of Union 1840 merged Upper Canada and Lower Canada into a single province named the Province of Canada . The Act of Union created
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#17327811531761672-594: The counties used for local government, hence the French unofficial term comté . However, it became common, especially in Ontario, to divide counties with sufficient population into multiple electoral divisions. The Constitution Act, 1867 , which created the electoral map for Ontario for the first federal and provincial general elections, used the term "ridings" to describe districts which were sub-divisions of counties. The word " riding ", from Old English *þriðing "one-third" (compare farthing , literally "one-fourth"),
1748-406: The urban population grew—and more importantly, most city dwellers gained the franchise after property ownership was no longer required to gain the vote. Rural constituencies therefore became geographically larger through the 20th century and generally encompassed one or more counties each, and the word "riding" became used to refer to any electoral division. A political party's local organization
1824-469: The "Senate floor", a province's number of seats in the House of Commons can never be lower than the province's representation in the Senate . Under the " grandfather clause ", the province's number of seats can also never fall below the number of seats it had in the 43rd Canadian Parliament (2019–2021). Under the "representation rule", no province that had a higher share of seats than its population share in
1900-453: The 1800s to 1966. The federal riding of Victoria elected two members from 1872 to 1903. As well, eight other federal ridings elected multiple (two) members at different times. As well, every province plus the territories of Yukon and Northwest Territories at one time or another used multi-seat districts. The use of multi-member districts usually led to the use of plurality block voting but occasionally other forms of voting were used in
1976-626: The 1970s, producing a large turnover in seats. Consequently, existing political parties often lose more than half their seats with the rise of new or opposition political parties. For instance, the 1970 and 1973 elections saw the demise of the Union Nationale and rise of the Parti Québécois, which took power in 1976 . The 1985 and 1994 elections saw the Liberals gain and lose power in landslide elections. The 2018 elections saw
2052-457: The 2012 redistribution process, especially to a proposal which would have divided the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, the city's primary gay village , between the existing riding of Toronto Centre and a new riding of Mount Pleasant along the length of Wellesley Street . In the final report, the northern boundary of Toronto Centre was shifted north to Charles Street. Once the final report
2128-422: The 65 seats Canada East had held in the Parliament of the Province of Canada , prior to Confederation, while the boundaries for Ontario's 82 seats were set by the Constitution Act, 1867 . The present formula for adjusting electoral boundaries was adopted in 2022. It starts by calculating an "electoral quotient", based on the average of the growth rate of the provinces since the time of the last redistribution,
2204-521: The Canadian House of Commons but 130 in its provincial legislature. For the 1999 Ontario general election , however, the government of Mike Harris passed legislation which mandated that seats in the provincial legislature would follow federal electoral district boundaries, both reducing the size of the legislature and eliminating the cost of the province conducting its own boundary adjustment process. After each federal boundary adjustment, seats in
2280-492: The Legislative Assembly. In 1968, Bill 90 was passed by the government of Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand , abolishing the Legislative Council and renaming the Legislative Assembly the "National Assembly", in line with the more strident nationalism of the Quiet Revolution . Before 1968, there had been various unsuccessful attempts at abolishing the Legislative Council, which was analogous to the Senate of Canada . With
2356-475: The Liberal Trudeau government tabled legislation to prevent Quebec (or any other province) from losing any seats relative to the number of seats it was apportioned in 2012 Canadian federal electoral redistribution . Bill C-14 amended Rule 2 of subsection 51(1) of the Constitution Act, 1867 , commonly known as the "Grandfather Clause". The Bill passed the House of Commons on June 15, 2022, passed
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2432-610: The Liberal party and went on to form the Progressive Democratic Alliance , with Wilson as leader. Wilson won re-election under the party banner, but Tybaji did not. He dissolved the party in 1999 and joined the BC NDP . As a member of the BC NDP he served in several cabinet positions and ran for its leadership in 2000 , but dropped out before the vote. He lost re-election in 2001 to Harold Long. Harold Long
2508-453: The Senate on June 21, 2022, and received royal assent on June 23, 2022. The Chief Electoral Officer announced the new allocation of seats on July 8, 2022, which would result in an increase to 343 seats. The act was introduced after a Bloc Québécois ' motion calling for government action to protect the number of Quebec's seat after redistribution. When the province's final seat allotment
2584-655: The Timiskaming riding was merged with Nipissing . Despite the opposition that arose to the 2003 process, however, virtually the same tripartite division of the city was proposed in the boundary adjustment of 2012, although due to concerns around balancing the Northern Ontario region's population against its geographic size, the commission announced in 2013 that it would retain the existing electoral districts again. Similarly, opposition arose in Toronto during
2660-456: The adoption of the new name, members of the assembly were now designated Members of the National Assembly (MNA) in English. In French, they are referred to as either membre de l'Assemblée nationale with the initialism M.A.N. or as députés de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec . In 1978, television cameras were brought in for the first time to televise parliamentary debates. The colour of
2736-418: The boundary commission that it wished to be included in a different electoral district. For example, in the 2003 boundary adjustment, the boundary commission in Ontario originally proposed dividing the city of Greater Sudbury into three districts. The urban core would have remained largely unchanged as Sudbury , while communities west of the central city would have been merged with Algoma—Manitoulin to form
2812-470: The city were divided into one city-based riding and two large rural ones rather than two city-based ridings, while the Timiskaming District is much more strongly aligned with and connected to North Bay , to which it has a direct highway link, than to Sudbury. In a deputation to the boundary commission, Sudbury's deputy mayor Ron Dupuis stated that "An electoral district must be more than
2888-402: The district for the capital city of Charlottetown was divided into two. After 1966, however, the electoral district boundaries again remained unchanged until 1996, when the province adopted new single-member districts. Under the new model, electoral districts are now adjusted every ten years, although most adjustments are geographically modest and the district's name is sometimes, but not always,
2964-458: The electoral list. Normally, the lieutenant governor invites the leader of the political party with the largest number of elected candidates to form the government as premier ( premier ministre in French; French does not make a distinction between premier and prime minister ). Quebec's territory is divided into 125 electoral districts (ridings). In each riding, the candidate who receives
3040-472: The failed Charlottetown Accord , no such rule currently exists—Quebec's seat allotment in the House of Commons is in fact governed by the same adjustment clauses as all other provinces, and not by any provisions unique to Quebec alone. However, such provisions have existed at various times in the past. From 1867 to 1946 Quebec was allocated 65 seats, with the other provinces allocated seats based on their size relative to Quebec. The "amalgam formula" of 1976 set
3116-486: The far north of the province. As a result, the province currently has 121 seats in the House of Commons, but 124 seats in the provincial legislature. When Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1873, it set a fixed formula in which each of the province's three counties was divided into five electoral districts per county, each of which elected two representatives to the provincial legislature. These districts were never adjusted for demographic changes, except in 1966 when
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3192-483: The federal ones; in the Northern Ontario region, however, because the region's slower growth would result in the gradual loss of seats compared to the more rapidly growing south, most districts still retain the same boundaries as the federal districts that were in place as of 2003, and are not readjusted to correspond to current federal boundaries. For the 2018 Ontario general election , further, two new uniquely provincial districts were added to increase representation for
3268-423: The first dissolution of Parliament that occurs at least seven months after the day on which that proclamation was issued". The boundary adjustment processes for electoral districts in provincial or territorial legislative assemblies follow provincial or territorial, rather than federal, law; they are overseen by each province's or territory's own election agency rather than by Elections Canada, and legislated by
3344-476: The first subsequent election. Thus, an electoral district may officially cease to exist, but will continue to be represented status quo in the House of Commons until the next election is called. This, for example, gives new riding associations time to organize, and prevents the confusion that would result from changing elected MPs' electoral district assignments in the middle of a Parliament. On some occasions (e.g., Timiskaming—French River , Toronto—Danforth ),
3420-543: The four federal electoral districts in Prince Edward Island have an average size of just 33,963 voters each, while federal electoral districts in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have an average size of over 125,000 voters each—only slightly smaller, in fact, than the entire population of Prince Edward Island. Conversely, pure representation by population creates distinct disadvantages for some Canadians, giving rise to frequent debate about how to balance
3496-439: The highest annual expense budgets among members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario are consistently filed by the representatives for Mushkegowuk—James Bay and Kiiwetinoong , the province's two largest and northernmost electoral districts; both must spend far more on travel to and from Toronto, travel within their own ridings and additional support staff in multiple communities within their ridings than any other legislator in
3572-419: The last redistribution can have its share of seats drop below its population share. A province may be allocated extra seats over its base entitlement to ensure that these rules are met. In 2022, for example, Prince Edward Island would have been entitled to only two seats according to the electoral quotient, but through the senatorial clause the province gained two more seats to equal its four senators. Quebec
3648-506: The legislative assembly would henceforth be automatically realigned to match the federal boundaries at the first subsequent provincial election. Although most electoral districts in the province still conform to federal boundaries, later amendments to the 1999 legislation have reauthorized the introduction of some differences from the federal map. In the Southern Ontario region, provincial districts remain in precise alignment with
3724-415: The legislature. Previously, there had been no fixed designation, but they had often been referred to as "Members of the Legislative Assembly" (MLAs) ( membres de l'Assemblée législative (M.A.L.s) ), which Premier Maurice Duplessis noted in his speech on the bill, "can sometimes be pronounced as ' mal ', which means 'evil' in French." In 1961, Marie-Claire Kirkland became the first woman elected to
3800-673: The legislature. He served for over 19 years before announcing his retirement prior to the 2024 BC election. He endorsed Randene Neill to succeed him, and she went on to win the seat. During his time in office he also served as Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction and ran for the BC NDP leadership in 2011 , but dropped out before voting took place. Sources: 1. Elections BC 2. SUMMARIES OF PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS AND BY-ELECTIONS, BRITISH COLUMBIA 1928 TO 1969.By: BRITISH COLUMBIA. CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER, Published: 1969, McMaster University Government Publications. Electoral district (Canada) An electoral district in Canada
3876-444: The most votes is elected and becomes a member of the National Assembly (MNA). This is the first-past-the-post voting system. It tends to produce strong disparities in the number of seats won compared to the popular vote, perhaps best exemplified by the 1966 (wrong-winner result), 1970 (false-majority result), 1973 , and 1998 election (wrong-winner and false-majority result). Quebec elections have also tended to be volatile since
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#17327811531763952-555: The multi-seat districts. From 1920 to 1949 Winnipeg used single transferable vote (STV) to elect 10 MLAs in a single city-wide district. And then the city was made into three four-member districts, again with the seats filled through STV. St. Boniface elected two MLAs in 1949 and 1953 through STV. Alberta had three provincial districts that at various times returned two, five, six or seven members: see Calgary , Edmonton and Medicine Hat . Prior to 1924 these seats were filled through plurality block voting but from 1924 to 1956
4028-424: The new riding of Greater Sudbury—Manitoulin, and those east and north of the central city would have been merged with Timiskaming to create the riding of Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury. Due to the region's economic and transportation patterns, however, "Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury" was particularly opposed by its potential residents — voters in Sudbury were concerned about the weakening of their representation if
4104-400: The number of Quebec seats to 75, which was to be increased by 4 after each decennial census. Other "large" provinces (over 2.5 million) would be assigned seats based on their relative population to Quebec. The amalgam formula was applied only once, based on the 1971 census. After the 1981 census it was realized that adding an additional four seats to Quebec every ten years would rapidly inflate
4180-438: The old Province of Canada into two, based on the old boundaries of Lower Canada and Upper Canada. The act created a new bicameral Legislature for the province of Quebec, composed of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. In December 1955, the assembly passed a bill according the title "Member of Provincial Parliament" ( membre du Parlement provincial ) and the initialism "MPP" ( M.P.P. ) to members of
4256-428: The only substantive change that actually occurs. Because electoral district boundaries are proposed by an arms-length body , rather than directly by political parties themselves, gerrymandering is not generally seen as an issue in Canada. However, in 2006 the provincial government of Prince Edward Island was accused of gerrymandering after it rejected the independent boundary commission's report and instead proposed
4332-400: The other clauses. The 2012 redistribution , which added three new seats in Quebec under the newly added representation rule, was the first and so far only time since 1985 that any of the other seven provinces had ever gained new seats. Some sources incorrectly state that a special provision guaranteeing a certain number of seats to Quebec is also applied. While such a provision was proposed in
4408-587: The population size of electoral districts against their geographic size. Whereas urban districts, such as Toronto Centre , Vancouver Centre or Papineau , may be as small as 15 square kilometres (5.8 sq mi) or less, more rural districts, such as Timmins-James Bay , Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou or Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River may encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of square kilometres. Thus, while Canadians who reside in major urban centres typically live within walking distance of their federal or provincial representatives' constituency offices,
4484-493: The post from single-member districts . The National Assembly was formerly the lower house of Quebec's legislature and was then called the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. In 1968, the upper house , the Legislative Council , was abolished and the remaining house was renamed. The office of President of the National Assembly is equivalent to speaker in other legislatures. As of the 2022 Quebec general election ,
4560-496: The post or plurality block voting ). The only exception were the 1952 and 1953 elections, when instant-runoff voting was used. In the case of multi-member districts, separate contests were used to elect separate MLAs in the same district. Prince Edward Island had dual-member districts at the provincial level from Confederation to the 1996 election . In the case of New Brunswick , between 1935 and 1974, some ridings were multi member districts, electing more than one MLA in
4636-409: The previous redistribution's electoral quotient is then multiplied by this average, and then the population of each individual province is divided by this electoral quotient then rounded up to determine the number of seats to which the province is officially entitled. Additionally, one seat is automatically allocated to each of Canada's three territories. Finally, a few special rules are applied. Under
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#17327811531764712-482: The process results in most provinces maintaining the same number of seats from one redistribution to the next, due to the senatorial and grandfather clauses—prior to the 2015 election , only Ontario , Alberta and British Columbia , traditionally the country's three fastest-growing provinces, had ever gained seats in a redistribution. All other provinces still held the same number of seats that they held in 1985, and were thus already protected from losing even one seat by
4788-550: The province losing clout in Ottawa if its proportion of seats in the House of Commons were reduced; finally, three new seats were allotted to Quebec as well. The measure did not pass before the 2011 election was called, but was put forward again after the election. It was passed on December 16, 2011 as the Fair Representation Act (Bill C-20), and resulted in the 2012 redistribution process. On March 24, 2022,
4864-658: The province or territory, Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) or Member of the House of Assembly (MHA)—to the provincial or territorial legislature. Since 2015, there have been 338 federal electoral districts in Canada. In provincial and territorial legislatures, the provinces and territories each set their own number of electoral districts independently of their federal representation. The province of Ontario currently defines most of its provincial electoral districts to align with federal boundaries; no other province does so, and even Ontario maintains
4940-556: The province. A 2017 study found, that 41 of the 338 federal ridings, have populations where visible minorities /Non Whites form the majority of the riding. Ontario and British Columbia have the largest number of ridings where visible minorities form the majority. Quebec has the most ridings with less than 5% visible minorities. National Assembly of Quebec Official Opposition Parties with official status Parties without official status The National Assembly of Quebec (French: Assemblée nationale du Québec )
5016-424: The provincial legislature rather than the federal parliament. Each province is free to decide its own number of legislative assembly seats, and is not required to comply with the federal quotas that govern its number of parliamentary districts. Prior to 1999, provincial electoral districts were defined independently of federal districts; at the time of the 1995 Ontario general election , the province had 103 seats in
5092-548: The riding was Gordon Wilson . Wilson was the leader of the BC Liberal party from 1987-1993. During a 1991 leaders debate he had a great performance, catapulting his party in the polls. The BC Liberals went from 0 seats in the 1986 BC election , to 17, becoming the Official Opposition . In 1993 he was caught having an affair with a fellow MLA, Judi Tyabji , and lost the Liberal leadership. Him and Tyabji left
5168-489: The rise of the Coalition Avenir Québec , which took power for the first time. Cabinet ministers are in bold, party leaders are in italic and the president of the National Assembly is marked with a †. One of the members of the National Assembly is elected as President of the Assembly (a post called speaker in most other Westminster System assemblies). Any member of the assembly is eligible to stand for election, other than party leaders and Cabinet ministers. The election
5244-522: The seats in the district. STV was used in Alberta and Manitoba multi-member districts from 1920s to 1950s. STV almost always produced mixed representation with no one-party sweep. As mentioned, limited voting was used in Toronto when it was a multi-member district. IRV was used in all BC districts including the multi-member districts, in 1952 and 1953. This voting system ensured that the winner had
5320-516: The seats were filled through single transferable voting (STV). Saskatchewan used multi-member provincial districts in Saskatoon , Regina and Moose Jaw , from 1920 to 1967. These seats were filled through multiple non-transferable vote . British Columbia provincially had a mix of multiple-member districts and single-member districts at the provincial level from 1871 to the 1991 election . Members were elected through plurality ( first past
5396-659: The size of the House of Commons, so that formula was abandoned in favour of the 1985 Representation Act . In 2008 the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed an amendment to the process which would have given Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, the three provinces whose electoral districts have an average size larger than those in Quebec, a total of 32 additional seats by applying Quebec's average of 105,000. The measure initially included only British Columbia and Alberta; Harper later proposed an alternative plan which included Ontario. However, opposition then emerged in Quebec, where politicians expressed concern about
5472-615: The support of a majority of votes in each contest but did nothing to create proportionality. Electoral district names are usually geographic in nature, and chosen to represent the community or region within the electoral district boundaries. Some electoral districts in Quebec are named for historical figures rather than geography, e.g., Louis-Hébert , Honoré-Mercier . Similarly in Alberta, provincial districts mix geographic names with those of historical personages (e.g., Edmonton-Decore after Laurence Decore , Calgary-Lougheed after Peter Lougheed and James Alexander Lougheed ). This practice
5548-473: The walls was changed to suit the needs of television, and the salon vert (green hall) became the salon bleu (blue hall). In 1984, Canadian Forces corporal Denis Lortie stormed into the Parliament Building and opened fire, killing three government employees and wounding thirteen others. His intended target was Premier René Lévesque and his Parti Québécois government. However, he
5624-715: Was around 15 minutes early and the Assembly floor was still mostly empty; no politicians were shot. He surrendered to police hours later. Constructed between 1877 and 1886, the Parliament Building features the Second Empire architectural style that was popular for prestigious buildings both in Europe (especially France where the style originated) and the United States during the latter 19th century. Although somewhat more sober in appearance and lacking
5700-438: Was only entitled to 71 seats by the electoral quotient alone, but through the grandfather clause the province gained seven seats to equal the 78 seats it had in the 43rd Parliament. Saskatchewan and Manitoba also gained seats under the grandfather clause, New Brunswick gained seats under the senatorial clause, and Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador gained seats under the grandfather and senate clauses. In practice,
5776-415: Was the former Social Credit MLA for Mackenzie , from 1986-1991, he lost re-election to Wilson . He returned as a BC Liberal in 2001 . He announced he would not run for re-election in 2005 . He died in a plane crash in 2013. Nicholas Simons , a member of the BC NDP, won the seat in 2005 . He worked as a social worker before entering politics. Simons was also one of the first openly gay men to serve in
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