Not All Ridings Are Created Equal

Electoral districts in Ontario, B.C., and Alberta have way more people in them than the rest of the country. Bill C-12 could change that, if only we could find a politician willing to pass it.

The Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson reported last week that the government and opposition parties have shelved a bill that would add more federal ridings in Ontario, B.C., and Alberta to reflect their booming populations. This has Sun Media’s Warren Kinsella hopping mad, and, citing some think tank or other, he declares, “Canada has the greatest amount of electoral inequality of pretty much any federation on the planet.” The Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP would all gain influence in the House at the expense of the Bloc if the bill were passed, so you’d think they’d be gung-ho about it, but Kinsella says they’re not “because they don't want to offend Quebec or the Atlantic provinces ... Those provinces would see their relative influence diminished if we were, you know, a real democracy and all that.”

It often seems like the Sun chain has only two editorial settings: blame the Liberals, and blame Québec. The Ottawa Sun’s editors opt for the latter in this case, saying that the main culprit blocking electoral reform is Québec, Canada’s most “accomplished sniveller.” The editors say that the other three parties are too scared to pass the bill because they know the Bloc would harness Québeckers’ anger at the province’s diluted influence. True, Québec voters and the Bloc oppose the bill, but did the Sun save none of its anger for anyone else? After all, the other three parties could easily outvote the Bloc, but MPs in their own parties oppose the bill – and not just those representing Québec, but those from the Maritime provinces, too.

Another interesting dimension to this story (if you’re intrigued by journalistic protocol, that is) is that Ibbitson quoted unnamed government sources for his piece, and now government sources with names are going on the record to deny the story. This infuriates the Globe’s Robert Silver, who says that either papers should stop quoting unnamed sources (dream on) or reporters should immediately reprint their stories including the names of their sources if off the record statements are contradicted on record. This sounds a little catty, but would presumably stop unnamed sources from jerking reporters around.