Opinion: Riding Sizes in House of Commons Should Reflect Current Population Realities
Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta are massively disadvantaged under the current distribution of seats in the House of Commons. Rebalancing would increase electoral fairness on the House floor, argue Mark Milke, Ven Venkatachalam, and Gordon Campbell in a recent opinion piece.
Canada in 2026 is obviously not the Canada of 1867. At Confederation, the population was nearing 3.5 million; today it is almost 42 million. In 1867, there was no Alberta, Manitoba, or Saskatchewan, and 80 per cent of Canadians lived in rural areas. Today more than 80 per cent live in cities. Women could not vote then; now they comprise more than half the electorate. The rights of Indigenous, Jewish, and East Asian Canadians were restricted in the 19th century, but those discriminatory barriers have since been torn down.
Given the demographic, social, legal, and political changes over the past 159 years, the authors propose one more reform: make ridings in the House of Commons near-equal in terms of population per riding, with an exception for the territories due to their vast size.
In 2025, Alberta had one member of Parliament per 134,057 people, the highest ratio, followed by British Columbia (133,077) and Ontario (132,645). The other seven provinces ranged from 44,820 people per riding in Prince Edward Island to 116,816 in Quebec. This overrepresentation or underrepresentation has persisted for decades. According to a new study examining election years from 1974 to 2025, the same three provinces—B.C., Ontario, and Alberta—were the most underrepresented every year.
How can a modern democracy treat a vote in one province as two or three times more valuable than in another? Last year, a federal vote in P.E.I. was worth three times that of a vote in Ontario. A vote cast in Newfoundland and Labrador was worth almost twice that of an Alberta vote. These disparities cannot be justified except as 19th-century political hangovers and 21st-century politicking. While some rebalancing occurs every ten years, provisions such as the Senatorial Clause and Grandfather Clause lead to chronic underrepresentation for Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.
What would accurate representation look like? The study calculated a scenario where 2025 federal ridings were nearly equal in population (except territories) and increased the number of seats to 350 from 343 to ensure no province lost seats. Under this plan, Ontario would gain 12 seats, British Columbia five, and Alberta four. Saskatchewan would lose three seats. Every Atlantic province and Quebec would lose two seats each, and Manitoba would lose one.
