Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Vote now! Should the government heed McGuinty's call to strip the Maritimes of seats in Parliament so they can be given to Ontario?

The Maritimes are over-represented in the House of Commons based on the number of seats they have in Parliament vs. their population. For example, PEI has 4 seats in Parliament, when in a true rep by pop scenario, they should have 1.

Last week, after the government released a plan to give Ontario extra seats, Premier McGuinty came out and said he wanted true rep by pop for Ontario. In short, he wants all his new seats, plus he wants another 10 back from the Maritimes as well.

Traditionally, Ontario, as the grandfather of confederation, has been willing to let the Maritimes "borrow" the extra 10 or so seats to which it is entitled.

This is the argument that Peter Van Loan tried, badly, to make last week when he called Permier McGuinty the "small man of confederation" for wanting his seats back from the Maritimes. Ontario has traditionally deferred receiving its full Parliamentary power so that the smaller provinces could have a bigger voice.

Now McGuinty is calling for true rep by pop. He wants the Maritimes to be stripped of seats so they can be transferred back to Ontario.

What do you think? Short sighted me-me-me Toronto-centric attitude, or is a new seat distribution in the House of Commons in order?



Time to redistribute seats in the House of Commons?
Yes, I agree with McGuinty. Give the Maritime seats back to Ontario
No, I disagree with McGuinty. Let the Maritimes keep Ontario's seats






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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is pure politicking by McGuinty. He's just trying to stir the pot for no good reason.

Heck, I'm in Ontario and I think we have enough political power as it is. I don't think we need to make the maritimes less powerful just to make us feel better about ourselves.

Anonymous said...

Let Dalton keep it up. See he is the most powerful Liberal in the country right now and he is dissing the welfare mentality of the liberal maritimes. I love to see the 'rich' eat their own.
(real conservative)

Anonymous said...

If we had a Triple E Senate, it probably wouldn't be an issue.

Anonymous said...

I hadn't seen this argument before that the 10 extra seats are meant for the Maritimes. If that is the case, why didn't the Conservatives just write that into Bill C-22, rather than their convoluted formula? In any case, why is this better than the Maritimes just keeping the seats they already have and treating Ontario, BC and Alberta equally, without taking anything way from the Maritimes? In other words, McGuinty's proposal.

Anonymous said...

and treating Ontario, BC and Alberta equally

Because Alberta and BC have been under-represented for decades, while no one can argue that Ontario lacks political power.

Dalton has opened a can of worms, and to get what Ontario wants, another part of Canada has to sacrifice. Not cool.