Ontario to get fewer new seats in redrawn House
CBC News
Posted: Oct 18, 2011 4:00 PM ET
Last Updated: Oct 19, 2011 11:45 AM ET
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper plans to give Ontario 13 additional seats in the House of Commons, CBC News has learned.
That will increase the province's presence in the Commons to 119 seats from the current 106.
But the additional 13 seats is fewer than the 18 the province was slated to receive under previous legislation that died when Parliament was dissolved, Ontario government sources told CBC News.
Under that legislation, British Columbia would also receive seven additional seats and Alberta five.
Earlier today, Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters there was a chance Ontario would end up with fewer additional seats, as the federal government attempts to address Quebec's concerns that its representation in the Commons will suffer under the redistribution plan.
On Friday, Harper said his government made three promises about representation in the House.
"First of all, that we would increase the number of seats now and in the future to better reflect the growth of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, the growth of those provinces and their population," he said in Peterborough, Ont.
"That secondly, we would make sure that the number of seats for the small provinces did not fall, that they were protected, and that the proportional representation of Quebec would also be protected, proportional according to population. Those are our three commitments, and we intend to bring forward legislation that respects those commitments."
The Conservative party platform said Quebec's seat total would not drop below its current 75 seats.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
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