Bloc motion to maintain under-representation of federalist voters

From Fair Vote Canada:

Bloc motion to maintain the “political weight” of QC in the House avoids more serious problem: the shocking under-representation of federalist voters (April 21, 2010)

The Bloc Quebecois motion to maintain the current proportion, or political weight, of seats for Quebec in the House of Commons, is misdirecting attention from a much bigger problem – the fair representation of all voters in Quebec, regardless of their political beliefs. The House is expected to vote on the Bloc’s motion this afternoon.

“Since its inception, the Bloc Quebecois has averaged only 43 per cent voter support in Quebec – while the voting system has given them, on average, 65 per cent of the seats,” said Larry Gordon, executive director of Fair Vote Canada, a national citizens’ campaign for voting system reform.

“The number of seats for each province in the House of Commons should indeed reflect, as best possible, the populations of the provinces,” said Gordon. “Depending on the total number of seats added to the House, you can argue Quebec may or may not deserve a few more – but that issue pales in comparison to the blunt denial of fair representation for all Quebec voters because of the winner-take-all voting system.”

In the 2008 federal election, more than 61 per cent of Quebec voters cast votes for the federalist parties. But the winner-take-all voting system gave federalist parties only 35 per cent of the seats.

“In other words, the federalist parties deserved about 45 of the seats from Quebec, but received only 25. The Bloc deserved about 29 seats but were given 49 seats by the voting system,” said Gordon.

“If the Bloc Quebecois truly wants fair representation for the voters of Quebec, it should bring forward a motion calling for the adoption of proportional representation in federal elections. That would be the right thing for voters in Quebec and all parts of Canada.”