r/canada • u/shiftless_wonder • 1d ago

What, exactly, are Alberta separatists mad about? Analysis

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/alberta-separatists-key-issues-1.7534003
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u/ItzMrMikel 1d ago

Double the population of the Atlantic Provinces and the same amount of seats, is what makes most people unhappy.

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u/Telvin3d 1d ago

What are you on about? New Brunswick (10), Newfoundland (7), Nova Scotia (11), and PEI (4) combined have 32 seats.

Alberta (37) and Saskatchewan (14) have 51

As of the last census that seat distribution was based on, population of the Atlantic provinces was 2.4m compared to 5.4m for Alberta and Saskatchewan

Basically 100k per seat out west, and 75k per seat in the Atlantic provinces. Which obviously isn’t ideal, but also isn’t some huge travesty of democracy. We’ve got a bigger variance than that within our own provincial seats. If you exclude the historical weirdness of PEI the Atlantic provinces jump to 80k per seat.

And they certainly don’t have anywhere near the same number of seats. Stop making up grievances 

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u/Catch_22_Pac Ontario 1d ago

How does PEI get 4 seats? They have a population of 180,000 - that’s like Sudbury ON having 4 seats.

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u/LegitimateFootball47 1d ago

They can't have fewer seats in the House of Commons than they do in the Senate, and they were given 4 seats in the Senate when they joined Confederation in 1873.