{"id":654816,"date":"2026-05-08T00:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/654816\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T00:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:04:09","slug":"quebec-tables-bill-to-increase-number-of-ridings-to-127-after-supreme-court-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/654816\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec tables bill to increase number of ridings to 127 after Supreme Court decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The\u00a0Quebec\u00a0government tabled a\u00a0bill\u00a0on Thursday\u00a0to\u00a0increase\u00a0the\u00a0number\u00a0of\u00a0ridings\u00a0in the province\u00a0to\u00a0127\u00a0from 125,\u00a0after\u00a0the\u00a0Supreme\u00a0Court\u00a0of\u00a0Canada ruled against its attempt\u00a0to\u00a0block a redrawing\u00a0of\u00a0the province’s electoral map.<\/p>\n

Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Roberge, minister\u00a0of\u00a0democratic institutions, said his\u00a0bill\u00a0is co-authored by the Liberals, Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0Solidaire.<\/p>\n

“This is the culmination\u00a0of\u00a0an important transpartisan collaboration that will lead us\u00a0to\u00a0have, I think, a map that truly respects effective representation,” Roberge told reporters at a news conference alongside representatives\u00a0of\u00a0the three other parties.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0bill\u00a0is the government’s latest attempt\u00a0to\u00a0prevent Montreal and the Gasp\u00e9 Peninsula from losing\u00a0ridings\u00a0in the redrawn map by the independent electoral boundaries commission. The commission had proposed eliminating one riding in Gasp\u00e9 and another in Montreal’s east end in favour\u00a0of\u00a0two new districts in the growing Laurentians, Lanaudi\u00e8re and Centre-du-Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0regions.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the\u00a0Quebec\u00a0government passed a law\u00a0to\u00a0block the commission’s changes, but it was deemed unconstitutional by the\u00a0Court\u00a0of\u00a0Appeal and eventually by the\u00a0Supreme\u00a0Court\u00a0of\u00a0Canada. The country’s highest\u00a0court\u00a0ruled last month that the legislation violates sections\u00a0of\u00a0the Charter that guarantee democratic representation.<\/p>\n

Last week, Quebec’s chief electoral officer expressed concern that a new law so close\u00a0to\u00a0the October election risked “compromising the quality, even the integrity\u00a0of\u00a0the next election.”<\/p>\n

WATCH | Why increase the number of ridings in Quebec?:\"\"<\/p>\n

Why Quebec wants to add ridings to its provincial electoral map \u2014 ahead of an election<\/p>\n

Quebecers may go to the polls in 127 instead of 125 ridings in the next provincial election. The province’s democratic institutions minister has tabled a bill to preserve two ridings, one in the Gasp\u00e9 and one in Montreal, after an independent body redrew them to create two ridings for growing populations in the Laurentians and Central Quebec. The bill is supported by all of the province’s opposition parties.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Roberge noted that the\u00a0bill\u00a0he tabled is not the same law that was struck down by the\u00a0Supreme\u00a0Court\u00a0and that he had worked “hand in hand” with the electoral officer in recent days\u00a0to\u00a0assuage concerns.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0bill\u00a0tabled Thursday would ensure the two\u00a0ridings\u00a0that were slated\u00a0to\u00a0be eliminated are maintained, while adding two more. It would also create a committee\u00a0to\u00a0study electoral representation issues in\u00a0Quebec.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chief electoral officer Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet and commissioner Kevin Bouchard criticized the government Thursday in a news release, accusing politicians\u00a0of\u00a0\u201cappropriating a process that must remain neutral and impartial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be the first time in 50 years that an election would take place based on an electoral map that wasn\u2019t established through an independent and non-partisan process,\u201d Bouchard said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexandre Leduc\u00a0of\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire told reporters that the\u00a0number\u00a0of\u00a0ridings\u00a0in\u00a0Quebec\u00a0hasn’t gone up since 1989, and that the population has grown around 30 per cent since then.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roberge said the addition\u00a0of\u00a0two new\u00a0ridings\u00a0will cost the province around $2 million per year.<\/p>\n

Quebec’s election law mandates that the election map should be reviewed every two elections\u00a0to\u00a0account for population changes and ensure that each\u00a0of\u00a0the province’s 125\u00a0ridings\u00a0contain roughly equal numbers\u00a0of\u00a0voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members\u00a0of\u00a0all parties had expressed concerns that the commission’s map would have taken away political weight from Gasp\u00e9 and made\u00a0ridings\u00a0in eastern\u00a0Quebec\u00a0overly large.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Roberge had hoped the law could be adopted quickly through a unanimous vote, one independent legislature member refused\u00a0to\u00a0vote in favour. As a result, the\u00a0bill\u00a0will have\u00a0to\u00a0follow regular parliamentary procedure. <\/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.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-654816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654816","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=654816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}