Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter


    February 2003
    March 2003
    April 2003
    May 2003
    June 2003
    July 2003
    August 2003
    September 2003
    October 2003
    November 2003
    December 2003
    January 2004
    February 2004
    March 2004
    April 2004
    May 2004
    June 2004
    July 2004
    August 2004
    September 2004
    October 2004
    November 2004
    December 2004
    January 2005
    February 2005
    March 2005
    April 2005
    May 2005
    June 2005
    July 2005
    August 2005
    September 2005
    October 2005
    November 2005
    December 2005
    January 2006
    February 2006
    March 2006
    April 2006
    May 2006
    June 2006
    July 2006
    August 2006
    September 2006
    October 2006
    November 2006
    December 2006
    January 2007
    February 2007
    March 2007
    April 2007
    May 2007
    June 2007
    July 2007
    August 2007
    September 2007
    October 2007
    November 2007
    December 2007
    January 2008
    February 2008
    March 2008
    April 2008
    May 2008
    June 2008
    July 2008
    August 2008
    September 2008
    October 2008
    November 2008
    December 2008
    March 2009
    April 2009
    May 2009
    September 2009
    October 2009
    December 2009
    January 2010
    Tuesday, May 5


    A week from now about 3.2 million British Columbians will be eligible to vote in the general election to choose 85 new (or old, depending on their mood) MLAs to represent and govern them. Chances are at best only 60% of those will actually show up and cast a ballot but voter turnout is a post for another day. But another piece of news hit me yesterday - Improvements will reflect Alberta's changing population - the move by Alberta's legislature to increase their numbers from 83 to 87 MLAs.

    daveberta is already talking about this and I'm sure more will be shortly. Naturally, most are focusing on the geography of the decisions that are about to be made and I certainly think how to distribute the seats, whether there 83 of them, 87 of them or even 60 of them is a vital debate, and one that will hopefully get the discussion it deserves. But before that comes the magic number, and I don't think that 87 is it.

    Edmonton has 12 councilors (along with the mayor) to represent some 752,000 people, with each councilor representing 63,000 people starting in 2010 - until then they share wards with another councilor, meaning Don Iveson works hard to represent some 125,000 people. My MP, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, has to work a little harder, as she represents 128,000 people and doesn't have a ward mate to help out. So why is it that the average Alberta MLA need only represent 43,765 people? When we move to 87 that number will drop to 41,753. Why does the City of Edmonton have 12 councilors and 8 MPs (who also represent Sherwood Park, St. Albert and Spruce Grove) but an amazing 18 MLAs?

    A Legislature needs to be a certain size in order to function - that much is obvious. If we're dividing Canada's provincial legislatures into three sizes - small, medium and large - we have four small legislatures in the three territories and Prince Edward Island, between 18 and 27. Even at those low amounts, MLAs represent a very small number of people - between 1,850 and 5,200 people a piece. But that comes out of necessity, as the average Alberta MLA represents more people than the entire population of the Yukon. We need at least around 20 MLAs to even carry on the basic function of a parliamentary democracy. Indeed, 20 makes it difficult, hence the medium legislatures.

    Newfoundland (48), Nova Scotia (52), New Brunswick (55), Manitoba (57), Saskatchewan (58) all have medium legislatures. They have enough MLAs to form functioning caucuses for both the government and opposition and have enough members to make a cabinet and shadow cabinet. It would be fair to say that somewhere between 45 and 60 is the base level a legislature should be if it has the population to support and justify it. After all, if Nunavut had 60 MLAs each would represent 526 people which is smaller than my graduating class in high school.

    Then we come to the large legislatures (according to the arbitrary Duncan scale of Canadian provincial legislature sizes) - British Columbia (79 - soon to be 85), Alberta (83), Ontario (107) and Québec (125). Of these four, Alberta has the smallest population of 3.6 million compared to 4.4 million in BC, 7.8 million in Québec and 13 million in Ontario. An Ontario MPP represents 121,300 people, a Québec MNA represents 62,250 people and currently BC MLAs represent 60,000 people. I'm not advocating for each Alberta MLA to have an average constituency size of 120,000 but if they only represented 60,000 then we would have a functioning legislature of 65 MLAs. Lots of space for debate and diversity. Alas, the number of proponents of reducing the size of the legislature I suspect are going to have their voices drowned out. Too bad.

    UPDATE: It would seem BC's legislature is growing to 85 on Tuesday, giving a BC MLA an average of 52,000 constituents.

    Labels:

    posted by Duncan @ 8:13 AM  

    12 Comments:

    • At 10:40 AM, OpenID Devin Johnston said…

      I like the system in Ontario because the provincial ridings are identical to the federal ridings, making it very easy for voters to know from election to election which riding they vote in. However, the same system would probably be inappropriate for some of the very smallest provinces because (for example) PEI would only have 4 MLAs.

       

    • At 10:41 AM, Anonymous SD said…

      Great post, Duncan! I couldn't agree with you more. As long as there is a sufficient number of MLAs to remain in contact with their constituents, and to foster healthy debate in the Legislature, there is no need for an increase. A change to 65 may not be the answer, but a reduction and redistribution to a number like 80 or 78 would be fine with me.

       

    • At 12:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      British Columbia has 85 MLAs

       

    • At 12:41 PM, Blogger Duncan said…

      They do? Can't find the info - Wikipedia says 79 and so does the BC Electoral Boundaries Commission. Do they go up this election?

       

    • At 2:13 PM, Blogger Duncan said…

      They did! They go up to 85 on Tuesday.

       

    • At 2:44 PM, Anonymous Joel McNally said…

      I like what I'm hearing and would love to subscribe to your "fewer MLAs" newsletter.

      Heck, I'd even join a party if getting rid of MLAs was the thrust.

       

    • At 3:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      I want to see more teachers,doctors and police on the street instead of MLAs. If we can't afford to hire more teachers,doctors and police then how can we afford to expand our government?

      I still can't believe Alberta has the largest air fleet of the jurisdictions in Canada.

       

    • At 8:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      "I want to see more teachers,doctors and police on the street instead of MLAs. If we can't afford to hire more teachers,doctors and police then how can we afford to expand our government? "

      This kind of comment is just plain silly. Ok, so we leave the number of MLAs at 83 instead of 87. That should allow you to hire 1 doctor, 3 teachers and a policeman, or some similar combination thereof. Happy?

      While Duncan has a fair point on whether 83 MLAs, or some smaller number is enough representation, it cannot/should not be done on some simplistic cost savings argument, since the savings are pretty immaterial in the context of provincial spending. We probably spend more money on student grants than we do on the salaries and office expenses of MLAs (not saying student grants are a waste of money - I had one in my time and was grateful for it).

       

    • At 9:30 PM, Blogger Duncan said…

      I am certainly agreed that financial reasons alone shouldn't motivate us to reduce the number of MLAs, that is no reason to discount them entirely.

      What are some other reasons? Ability of all parties to attract good candidates strikes me as one. Regardless of the party, I think finding the best of the best is difficult when inevitably many MLAs are bound to serve a fairly inconsequential role. I also don't think any party in the last election put forward a roster of... well, the 83 most committed and awesome potential public servants. Developing a potential caucus of politicians to challenge the government isn't easy when you've got find 87 candidates supported by 87 constituency associations. The same goes if you happen to be the government caucus, developing a platform and putting forward a team that is prepared to get another mandate.

      There is also something to be said for raising the cachet of being an MLA - raising the bar on what it means to be that kind of a leader in a community. There are those who would say having lived in an urban area my whole life means I miss the importance a rural MLA has within their communities, and that's fair. In my community however, MLAs are a much lesser class of politician than an MP or even a councilor unless they are in cabinet.

      But a lot of is money, and comes down to that. An MLA, like all politicians, is supported by a vast infrastructure of people and resources. There are some economies of scale - you need legislative council to read over private members bills regardless of the size of a legislature, but every MLA needs some administrative support in the Legislature and back home and that costs money.

      In addition, Alberta businesses and individuals make contributions to the political process. And that costs you money - lots in fact. Political donations in Alberta make great tax deductions and while many give to the central party and those donations won't stop from a lower number of legislators but will likely reduce the donations given (and to an extent required by the system) to individual candidates and their campaigns.

      In the end though, I think Scott Hennig made the great point on Twitter: Rarely has creating more politicians been a solution to a problem. #ableg

      BTW, student grants, awesome idea.

       

    • At 12:57 AM, Anonymous andy said…

      If you like true religion jeans, diesel jeans and evisu jeans , welcome to my site.

       

    • At 10:37 AM, Anonymous Gehres Weed said…

      Ruling Parties especially with the Federal and Provincial governments tend to redraw constituency maps to increase their chances for the next election. I have seen this happen in the Spruce Grove, Stony Plain area over and over as the map has been redrawn several times.

      In Spruce Grove we have 6 council members and a mayor which means each council member takes care of only 4,000 residents.

      Even though we may have great access here its far more important as to how the City Council behaves rather than their numbers.

       

    • At 2:06 AM, Anonymous andy said…

      If you like cheap jordan shoes, Supra TK Society and supra shoes , welcome to my site.

       

    Post a Comment

    << Home



    © 2003-2010 Duncan Wojtaszek
    No reproduction whatsoever, in any form, without permission.
    All views expressed here are those of Duncan Wojtaszek and no other person or organization.