Re: (ReacTor) Five Futures Where the US Ended Not With a Bang But a Whimper

The Horny Goat wrote:

On Wed, 28 May 2025 16:50:56 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:
 

That's not even getting into how Quebec would react as French gets
bumped down from second language to third, after Spanish.

 Which practically speaking is why the proposition is so absurd.
 BC and AB combined have a considerably larger population than Quebec
yet considerably fewer seats in Parliament

BC and AB together do have a larger population than Quebec.
But they have eighty seats in the House of Parliament, to Quebec's 78. This has been true since the redistribution of 2022.
About the senate you are entirely right. It is absurd that Quebec should have double the number of seats of the above two provinces.  But it is even more absurd that NB and NS each have ten senators to six for each
western province.
Why complain about Quebec when the real over representation is in the east?
But nobody should really give a damn about that institution.  Ontario is also underrepresented there, but we don't complain about it because is just doesn't matter.  In fact we offered to give six senate seats to Quebec to shut them up in some early 90s squabble.  Offer not accepted.
  AND the constitutional

amending formula prevents any constitutional amendments that Quebec or
the Maritime provinces object to no matter how lopsided the population
gets. Can't remember whether it was the premier of NS or NB who said
something to the effect of "the present amending formula works quite
well for us - why would we consent to change it?'
 Thus BC and AB are under represented in BOTH houses of Parliament and
the amending formula prevents any changes - forever.

On the contrary, seats in parliament can be redistributed by passing a simple bill.  The recent redistribution was a case of too little, too late.  It's already time to do it again.  Growing areas will always be underrepresented but riding populations in parts of the west are absurd - as they always have been in Ontario.
Because Quebec's (and PEI's) numbers can never go down, the house will have to bloat again to give the growing provinces fair representation.
Last time Harper shortchanged Ontario, costing him one conservative cabinet minister (and perhaps the only true fiscal conservative of his generation in the conservative party), this time that will have to be made up, resulting in a big increase in MPs.
  Is it any wonder

why people in BC and AB feel like second class citizens

Join the club.   My riding is, as of the 2021 census, now at the BC average. For most of my life it has been well above.  Aside from the six years I spent in Halifax I've always been underrepresented.
But now some riding numbers in BC and Alberta are looking insane.  One riding in AB seems to have 200,000 residents (not all electors, of course but I don't have contemporary elector numbers to hand).
At a guess, we have to add twenty people to parliament, to BC, AB, and Ont.
William Hyde