Quebec’s political weight in Ottawa: Bloc’s second attempt failed

At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, Bloc Québécois House Leader, Alain Therrien, presented an amendment to these lines in Bill C-14, which aims to prevent Quebec from going from 78 to 77 seats in Commons.

” The House of Commons has labeled Quebec a “country”. And it was by a very, very, very, very strong majority that voted in favor. Listen, the lyrics must make sense […] the boots should adhere to the chops. “

The chairman of the committee then immediately ruled that the motion was out of order under the procedures of the House of Commons, as the amendment had been exceeded. scope and principles.

The Chairman is of the opinion that in the context of Bill C-14, the allocation to the province of Quebec of 25% of the seats in the House of Commons, may require a reduction in the number of seats for one or more provinces, which is contrary to the principle of the billexplained President Bardish Chagger.

Mr. Therrien asked for a vote to challenge his decision. All members present at the meeting supported the president’s decision, except for the Bloc Québécois.

The bill by private member of the Bloc Québécois C-246, with the same purpose, was defeated on Wednesday in second reading.

In March, the Bloc had a motion adopted in the House of Commons to reject any scenario of redrawing the federal electoral map that would have the effect of causing the loss of one or more electoral districts in Quebec, or of reducing Quebec’s political weight in the House of Commons.

The Bloc opposes Bill C-14 because Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia will still see their number of seats increase, to take into account changes in Canada’s population, indicating that the weight in Quebec’s politics will decrease. .

Quebec currently has 78 of 338 seats in the House of Commons, or 23.1% of the seats. Therefore, it will take seven more MPs to reach the 25% threshold demanded by the Bloc Québécois.