Quebec's Perennial Hysterics

Didn't take long for Quebec to weigh in on the Speech From The Throne. Quebec doesn't want the federal government to tamper with their sovereign rights. Quebec is opposed to any change in the Senate without consultation with the provinces, it is opposed to any alteration in the balance of provincial representation through numbers of MPs allotted per province.

The federal government is determined to correct an imbalance with updated legislation.

Changes to the Senate or provincial representation in the House of Commons are moves that are certain to disrupt the status quo where Quebec, for example, has far more influence than it should have, through over-representation. Whereas the provinces considered to be the 'rich' ones in Canada, those provinces which have traditionally been responsible for most of the transfer money that has gone to enrich Quebec, a 'have-not' province, are vastly under-represented.

Quebec's share of the national population was 27% at one time, but it has since fallen to just over 22%. Under the current legislation Quebec is guaranteed 75 seats in Parliament, irrespective of population percentage. It's a similar situation with Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces dating back to a 1915 rule matching Senate seat numbers with Commons seats.

So Quebec's hysterics over the federal government's proposed changes to add an additional 30 seats in Parliament to reflect the proportional value of British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta's population sizes relative to the national population is long overdue. Quebec's apoplectic reaction is readily understood, put forward pithily by its Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, Pierre Moreau:

"There is a possibility to jeopardize the weight of Quebec within the federal institutions. The balance could change if you change the way people are appointed to the Senate or if you change anything else."

Precisely so.