L18. Political Representation in Canada 1

Question 1

Recount the history of the federal franchise in Canada

Answer 1

1867: gender, race, religion, property, age (21) restriction
1917: special voting rules due to the war
- women in the armed forces could vote
- female relatives of soldiers could vote
- mailing votes became permitted
- groups lost the right to vote: consciouses objectors, mennonites, recently naturalized citizens from non-English countries
1918: Canadian women can vote
1920: women can run for candidacy
1929: women achieve personhood
1948-60: property, race, religion dropped, conscious objectors could vote, register Indigenous People living on reserves could vote
1970: voting age lowered to 18 (sense of identity separate from the UK)
1982: voting becomes a right in the charter
1993: some inmates, mentally disabled, and judges gain right to vote
2002: all inmates can vote

Question 2

What does the right to vote represent?

Answer 2

• Symbolic powers
• rights were given strategically

Question 3

How does numeric representation work?

Answer 3

• based on population
• a person = basic unit of representation
• consequences: can have very different sized districts

Question 4

How does regional representation work?

Answer 4

• based on areas and/or communities
• community = basic unit of representation
• consequence: unequal population and/or unequal electors

Question 5

What is allotment

Answer 5

distribution of seats among provinces

Question 6

Why is there a absolute number of representatives

Answer 6

there is an extreme resistance to reduction of MPs (people don’t wanna lose their jobs)
- house of commons has only gotten larger

Question 7

What is the electoral quotient?

Answer 7

a number that sets the ration of population to representatives
- first based on population of quebec/65
- used to allocate seats to provinces
- low ratio means more voting power (hold more power in a district with fewer people)

Question 8

What is the history of allotment in Canada?

Answer 8

1867: 181 seats divided by 4 founding provinces (pretty much decided by population size)
- planned for growth (made quotient)
- fixed ratio of population to MPs (house size not fixed)
- seats to new provinces and population to growth
1915: first problem
- by set formula PEI is to small and will lose a seat
- senatori
al clause put in that # of MPs will always be bigger than the number of senators from that province
- random political compromise
1946: ?
1951: 15% clause
- no province could love more than 15% seats
- problem of relative population loss remains
1974: Amalgam formula (political compromise)
- lack of consistency within rules
- grandfather clause (no seat loss relative to 1985)
- change Quebec quotient to 75 (a somewhat return to original principles and a strategy to appease Quebec)
1985: representation act formula
- faster growing and larger provinces gain seats
- smaller provinces get over represented (addressed by adding seats)
Current formula:
- provincial population/electoral quotient = initial seat allocation
- then apply senatorial and grandfather clause to this
then apply representation rule (2011)