Facts
There are effectively 124 seats in the Ontario parliament which, with a population of almost 16 million, gives a ratio of approximately 0.8 MPs per 100,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the National Assembly does indeed have 125 seats, or 1.4 per 100,000.
From a very strictly point of view (one could even say closely) factual, it is therefore true: Ontario has significantly fewer MPs per capita than the Belle Province. However, it is a comparison that can be a bit misleading: when we expand a little, in fact, we realize that it is Ontario that is the exception.
The number of deputies is in fact higher in the other provinces than in Quebec, always in relation to their population. The legislatures of Alberta and British Columbia, for example, have 87 seats each, giving ratios of 1.8 MPs/100,000 population. and 1.6/100,000 respectively.
And it’s even higher in less populous provinces, such as Manitoba (57 MLAs, or 3.8/100,000), Saskatchewan (61 MLAs, or 5.1/100,000), New Brunswick ( 49 MPs, or 5.8/100,000) and Nova Scotia (55 MPs, or 5.1/100,000).
In Ontario, the low number of provincial deputies is largely explained by the drastic cuts that the Conservative government of Mike Harris made almost everywhere in the government apparatus at the end of the 1990s. (It must be said that Mike Harris had succeeded a particularly spendthrift NDP government, but that’s another story.) In 1996, the Fewer Politicians Act had reduced the number of seats in the Ontario parliament from 130 to 103. It subsequently rose gradually to 124 today, but the province is still well below the Canadian average.
And the ministers?
The size of the council of ministers varies a little more over time than the number of deputies, but, at the moment, it is wrong to think that Ontario has fewer. In fact, there are 36 people in the “holy of holies” in Ontario currently, which is more than the 31 we have in Quebec, at least in absolute number.
In proportion to the population, the same picture emerges as for the number of deputies. There are proportionally fewer ministers in Ontario (0.26 per 100,000 inhabitants) than in Quebec (0.34), but it is still Ontario which is an exception.
Alberta and British Columbia have 25 and 28 ministers respectively, making them about 0.5 / 100,000 population. And it is in less populous provinces like Nova Scotia (19 ministers, or 1.8/100,000) and New Brunswick (18 ministers or 2.1/100,000) that we find the largest cabinets, proportionally.
So here too, Quebec seems more spendy if we limit the comparison with Ontario, but appears much more “normal” as soon as we broaden the perspective.
Premier Doug Ford addresses the Ontario parliament. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
Access to the MP
It goes without saying that the state would save money if it abolished constituencies — not only the salary and expenses of the deputy himself, but also those of his employees. This is one of the main arguments put forward in favor of this type of reform and, for a government which advocates austerity, it can also be an opportunity to set an example. It’s defensible.
But these are savings that come from a sort of “hidden cost,” warns Laval University political scientist Marc-André Bodet. “The scientific literature that relates specifically to Quebec and Canada is quite limited, but it tends to show that the work of deputies is increasingly centered on the link to be made between citizens and the administrative machine, and that the more the constituencies are populous, the more difficult access to the MP becomes.”
Research results also support this idea. In the United States, at least, studies have established that the more an elected official represents a large section of the population, the more difficult it is for their constituents to have access to it. It also seems that the American states where the legislative assembly has the fewest elected officials (in proportion to the number of voters) are those whose work is judged the most negatively by the population.
We must also consider the fact, adds Mr. Bodet, that having relatively few deputies worsens the distortions of an electoral system like ours – for example, the current CAQ government has won almost three-quarters (72%) of the votes. seats in the 2022 elections despite only receiving 41% of the votes. We could therefore reduce this disproportion by adding deputies.
Here too, several studies corroborate this idea, one of which was co-signed by Mr. Bodet, moreover.
None of this, if it must be mentioned, means that it would necessarily be preferable for Quebec to add (or remove) deputies to the National Assembly. There would be nothing illegitimate in the idea of putting economic efficiency before representativeness, or the opposite. But these are choices of values which are not the responsibility of a factual verification column like this one.
Verdict
True, but incomplete. There are actually fewer deputies and ministers per capita in Ontario than in Quebec, it is undeniable. But the comparison is a bit misleading because Ontario has exceptionally few: the other provinces have more deputies and ministers, proportionally, than Quebec.
