PREFACE

"The right to vote and the right to be a candidate for election to the House of Commons are necessary but not sufficient conditions to ensure that the electoral law promotes both the equality of the vote and effective representation. How we assign Commons seats to provinces and territories and draw the constituency boundaries within provinces can also affect the degree to which we realize these three objectives" (Reforming Electoral Democracy, Report of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing, 1991, Vol. 1, p. 123).

Several principles underlie Canada’s system of parliamentary representation. The first of these is territorial representation, meaning that each elector is represented in the House of Commons on the basis of a geographical division, called the electoral district or constituency or riding. On a country-wide basis and within each constituency, the democratic goal of the electoral system is embodied in the principle of "one elector – one vote," which is set out in the Canada Elections Act. The application of this principle was clarified in a 1991 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, which held that the true meaning of the right to vote is not absolute equality of voting power but a right of effective representation. It is on these principles that electoral districts are drawn.

This publication has been prepared to shed some light on two fundamental but little-known aspects of the federal electoral system, namely:

the principle of representation in the House of Commons, in other words, how the seats in the House of Commons are divided among the ten provinces and three territories;

and, secondly,

how the electoral district boundaries are determined and periodically readjusted to reflect changing representation in the House of Commons and population movements from one region to another, as well as within each region.

This is not a comprehensive account of these topics, but rather an overview, which, it is hoped, will serve to stimulate further interest in, and study of, Canada’s electoral system.

The simple act of marking a ballot determines who will represent us in the House of Commons.

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