June 7, 2004 - Is the Western vote more worthless than the Easterner vote?

The question is based on one of the key complaints of Western alienation, that Canadians living in Western Canada have less of a say in how the country is run than Ontario and Quebec.

The argument seems to be a no-brainer. Quebec has 75 seats and Ontario has 106. Add them together: 58 per cent of the seats. Winner takes all.

The trouble is that simple equations and Canada don't go together.

First, Canada is a representative government, meaning Members of Parliament are elected to represent voters in a constituency. Mind you the representativeness is made more theoretical since the recent run of power-mongering Prime Ministers Mulroney, Chretien and Martin created a presidency out of the prime minister's office.

Second, Canada is a federation, meaning it has to share power among its provinces and territories. That means Prince Edward Island has four seats and only 103,034 voters. On average, an individual citizen's vote in PEI can change the election result more than in a riding with more voters. No politician would think about taking away any of those four seats from PEI because it could provoke secession.

Thirdly, Canada is a democracy. The most votes in each riding mean victory. Majority wins and rules. Losers can pick up the perks of opposition status, a pension and a funny story about Ed Broadbent. "I remember when Ed opened for Ice T..."

So armed with my high school math skills, www.parl.gc.ca, Elections Canada and the Statistics Canada web sites, I set out to confirm my Western bias that our vote is worth less than an Ontario or Quebec vote.

What I found was surprising.

The four provinces that had more Canadian voters per riding were Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. The Big Four. More voters per riding means an individual's vote makes less of an impact. So Alberta, B.C., Ontario and Quebec have a common problem in Canada: under-representation in the federal government. The notion that the West gets less seats in the House of Commons than Ontario and Quebec is not true.

The notion that the West is an alienated blob is not true, either. In contrast, Western provinces Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the North, and the Maritimes all benefit from the current system.

So spread the word on the latest fight for majority rights: Alberta, B.C., Ontario and Quebec are being screwed by the little guys of Confederation. The score is 245-63.