by Maurice Y. Michaud (he/him)
Canada's legislative assemblies vary considerably in size from one jurisdiction to another. Although one should make a distinction between eligible voters and overall population, the table below nonetheless provides some perspective on these variations by listing each jurisdiction with its estimated population in 2023 and the average number of people represented by each member. However, it is important to remember how that average number conceals how some jurisdictions may have:
Legend } | p/s: Average population/seat %s: Percentage of seats |
|||||||||||
Jurisdiction | Federal | Prov/Terr | General Elections | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Details | Capital city | Largest city | Population | Seats | p/s | %s | Seats | p/s | ← | → | ||
1 | CA | Ottawa | Toronto | 40,769,890 † 40,639,041 |
338 335 |
120,621 121,311 |
n/a | — | — | 2021-09-20 | 2025-10-20* | |
9 | AB | Edmonton | Calgary | 4,800,768 11.81% |
34 | 141,199 | 10.15% | 87 | 55,181 | 2023-05-29 | 2027-05-31 | |
8 | BC | Victoria | Vancouver | 5,609,870 13.80% |
42 | 133,568 | 12.54% | 87 | 64,481 | 2020-10-24 | 2024-10-19 | |
11 | MB | Winnipeg | Winnipeg | 1,474,439 3.63% |
14 | 105,317 | 4.18% | 57 | 25,867 | 2023-10-03 | 2027-10-05 | |
3 | NB | Fredericton | Moncton | 846,190 2.08% |
10 | 84,619 | 2.99% | 49 | 17,269 | 2020-09-14 | 2024-10-21 | |
7 | NL | St. John's | St. John's | 540,552 1.33% |
7 | 77,222 | 2.09% | 40 | 13,514 | 2021-03-25 | 2025-11-24 | |
2 | NS | Halifax | Halifax | 1,069,364 2.63% |
11 | 97,215 | 3.28% | 55 | 19,443 | 2021-08-17 | 2025-07-15 | |
14 | NT | Yellowknife | Yellowknife | 44,741 0.11% |
1 | n/a | n/a | 19 | 2,355 | 2023-11-14 | 2027-10-05 | |
13 | NU | Iqaluit | Iqaluit | 40,721 0.10% |
1 | n/a | n/a | 22 | 1,851 | 2021-10-25 | 2025-10-27 | |
6 | ON | Toronto | Toronto | 15,911,285 39.15% |
121 | 131,498 | 36.12% | 124 | 128,317 | 2022-06-02 | 2026-06-04 | |
4 | PE | Charlottetown | Charlottetown | 176,162 0.43% |
4 | 44,041 | 1.19% | 27 | 6,525 | 2023-04-03 | 2027-10-04 | |
5 | QC | Québec | Montréal | 8,984,918 22.11% |
78 | 115,191 | 23.28% | 125 | 71,879 | 2022-10-03 | 2026-10-05 | |
10 | SK | Regina | Saskatoon | 1,225,493 3.02% |
14 | 87,535 | 4.18% | 61 | 20,090 | 2020-10-26 | 2024-10-28 | |
12 | YT | Whitehorse | Whitehorse | 45,387 0.11% |
1 | n/a | n/a | 19 | 2,389 | 2021-04-12 | 2025-11-03* | |
† Excluding the territories. The average population/seat is calculated with the population of the provinces only. Note: At the provincial or territorial levels, except for the three Maritime provinces, a number of far-northern seats are in fact excluded from the jurisdiction's calculation of the average population/seat, but the calculations presented in this table do not exclude them. As a result, the official figure used by each jurisdiction is higher. * The current context could lead to a general election being held sooner. |
At the federal level, the original intention was that the number of seats for each province should be proportional to its demographic weight within the country. However, it wasn't long before some provinces saw their number of seats in the Commons decrease as the more populous provinces — Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, and Alberta — grew at a faster rate than the smaller provinces. In fact, now estimated at 540,552, the population of Newfoundland and Labrador was estimated to have reached 580,369 in 1993.
What ought to stand out from this table is that, as a result of amendments to the representation formula to prevent provinces from losing seats, the large provinces (except Québec) are now considerably underrepresented in Parliament. This is in spite of the fact that the number of seats went from 264 in 1968 to 338 in 2012, with the 2012 redistribution adding 15 seats to Ontario, 6 each to British Columbia and Alberta, and 3 to Québec. In fact, the 1968 redistribution was the last one in which provinces lost seats, with some restored in 1979 (-4 in Saskatchewan, then +1 to reach its current number of 14; -1 in Manitoba, returning to its current 14; -1 in Québec, returning to 75, and -1 in Nova Scotia, returning to its current number of 11.)
Ontario seems to have stayed relatively quiet about it (although it never refused more seats), but the same cannot be said of British Columbia and Alberta. And rightly so! In 1968, those two provinces respectively had 21 and 19 seats. By the 2012 redistribution, they had reached 42 and 34. But the representation formula, coupled perhaps with a desire to prevent the number of seats from ballooning, has rendered these provinces' underrepresentation chronic.
But why not rethink the formula? Not scrap it! Just rethink it. Because it's hard to scrap something that's entrenched into the Constitution...