{"id":409697,"date":"2026-01-14T23:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409697\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T23:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:37:17","slug":"quebecs-electoral-map-redrawn-with-montreal-and-gaspesie-losing-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409697\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec\u2019s electoral map redrawn, with Montreal and Gasp\u00e9sie losing seats\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Quebec\u2019s electoral map has been redrawn ahead of the upcoming provincial election, with both the Gasp\u00e9sie region and the island of Montreal losing one riding each.<\/p>\n<p>The rapidly growing Laurentians and Centre-du-Qu\u00e9bec regions, meanwhile, will each gain a seat. In all, the new map modifies 51 of Quebec&#8217;s 125 ridings.<\/p>\n<p>The independent commission responsible for the map, the Commission de la repr\u00e9sentation \u00e9lectorale (CR\u00c9), made the changes to reflect population shifts. The new boundaries were published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca\/fileadmin\/gazette\/pdf_encrypte\/lois_reglements\/2026A\/107876.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gazette officielle du Qu\u00e9bec<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The changes come despite a legal effort by the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec (CAQ) government to maintain the status quo.<\/p>\n<p>Breakdown of changes<\/p>\n<p>The major changes are as follows. <\/p>\n<p>Gaining a seat:<\/p>\n<p>Laurentians: A new riding named Bellefeuille is created to address population booms north of Montreal.Centre-du-Qu\u00e9bec: A new riding named Marie-Lacoste-G\u00e9rin-Lajoie is added south of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City.<\/p>\n<p>Losing a seat:<\/p>\n<p>Montreal: One riding is eliminated in the east end. The former ridings of Anjou\u2013Louis-Riel, LaFontaine and Pointe-aux-Trembles have been reconfigured into two: Anjou-LaFontaine and Pointe-aux-Prairies.Gasp\u00e9sie: The ridings of Gasp\u00e9 and Bonaventure are merged.Political opposition<\/p>\n<p>The decision to cut a seat in the Gasp\u00e9sie region and eastern Montreal sparked pushback when first proposed in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/montreal\/quebec-electoral-map-review-bill-suspension-1.7158497\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">all four parties in the National Assembly<\/a> united to pass a law halting the redistricting process, arguing it hurt regional representation.<\/p>\n<p>On Dec. 1, the Quebec Court of Appeal declared that law unconstitutional, ruling that it compromised the principle of effective representation by allowing significant disparities in voter weight to persist.<\/p>\n<p>The commission finalized its map following that ruling.<\/p>\n<p>However, the CAQ government filed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada <a href=\"https:\/\/ici.radio-canada.ca\/nouvelle\/2216023\/contestation-carte-electorale-cour-supreme-quebec\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">late last year<\/a>, hoping to freeze the current map in place for the upcoming provincial election, scheduled for next fall.<\/p>\n<p>The Attorney General of Quebec is now asking the Supreme Court to hear an appeal on the merits by April 15, even though the court typically takes four to six months just to decide whether it will hear a case.<\/p>\n<p>The legal challenge against the government&#8217;s attempt to freeze the map was led by a coalition of municipal officials from the Laurentians, supported by leaders from Laval, the Outaouais, Eastern Townships and Centre-du-Qu\u00e9bec regions who argued their citizens were underrepresented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-409697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}