When I want to look at something I go to the source. I guess it is my scientific training perhaps but I do not like social media and do not use it particularly. Because the Senate can only really delay items and eventually does just follow the wishes of the House of Commons, I do not really think about how many senators each province has. That was brought to my attention by the National Post article on we do not know enough about Alberta and their complaints. I did read through the designated seats for each province and BC and Alberta both have 6 along with Saskatchewan and Manitoba also having 6 each. Quebec is guaranteed a particular number of seats (same number as Ontario) and that is 24 with Ontario also having 24 (one notes the difference between population in those two provinces at 9+ million for Quebec and 16+ million for Ontario). It would appear that this number is determined by the Canadian Constitution which I assume is the one from 1982. So Saskatchewan and Manitoba with much smaller populations have the same number of seats as BC and Alberta. The remaining provinces New Brunswick and Nova Scotia 10 seats each, Prince Edward Island 4 sets (this adds up to 24 as well interestingly so is probably a regional representation of 24) and Newfoundland and Labrador 6 seats, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut 1 seat each. The distribution is based on region rather than population.
Since the impact of the Senate is to proofread the bill before it goes to law and note any discrepancies with existing laws and likely with the thoughts of individual regions I think they do a great job. I do not go to Senate meetings so no ideas on that. I believe by the original constitution that Quebec must always have the same number of Senate seats as Ontario, the Maritimes in 1867 consisted only of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick although Prince Edward Island did go to the meetings and their total is also 24 except I have no idea what they did between the time that NS and NB came in (1867) and PEI waited until 1873. Would have to research that. If I want actual facts I generally do not use social media. So would Alberta prefer to take seats away from Saskatchewan and Manitoba and take them themselves; I realize the system is not by population but rather based on region and then split them up equally in that region. Ontario has willingly opened up the purse strings to help every province since Confederation until we were a have not province during the Harper government when all the money was funneled to Alberta for the oil industry. I do not think that that was wrong as the ability to use the resources of Alberta worked very well for Canada and that was the intention of the Founding Fathers (this was after all a very strongly English (British) centralized system at its onset). That all the provinces would contribute what they could for the good of Canada. I have never really had an opinion on any other province particularly but this is an eye opener actually. I think what many people do not realize is the attitude of most of the province of Ontario towards Toronto which gets everything and the rest of the province waits forever for roads for schools for medical setups. The only reason they improve the roads for the most part is to make it easier to get to Toronto. So Alberta is not alone in your desire to be heard. The capital city of the country, Ottawa, did not have a four lane road coming into the city for years and years until finally 417 was built and Highway 16 finally widened coming up from the 401. Possibly the answer lies in Senate Reform but I think the idea of region is good as there are regional considerations by geography. I think the Territories are under represented and should have 24 senators in total like the other regions; they are the north and that is vast. That would really help with all the work we need to do in the north for sure. We need eyes on everything really and that is one huge area. The First Nations could provide most of that representation if that works out for them as they are poorly represented in the Senate (there are only 12 generally although changes occur).
Gerrymandering in Canada is generally not accepted as any changes are only created by federal independent non political commissions. That needs more research on my part if I want to know more.
That was an interesting article and I shall try harder to learn more about Western Canada. I shall write my cousin as she has lived there all her life. I have never been west of Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada sorry to say but my daughter and I might take the train from Edmonton to Vancouver and then the other way to Prince George. Both will be fantastic.
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