Any dissolution of Parliament on or after 23 April 2024 will mean that Canadians vote in a general election using the new electoral boundaries established in 2023. The House of Commons grew from 338 to 343 MPs, with Alberta gaining three new MPs and British Columbia and Ontario each gaining one new MP.
The accolades poured in for Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003, as he became a nonagenarian in January. They came even from some unlikely sources, such as former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.[1]
Chretien’s enduring success flows from his mimetic, mirthful mendacity, his masterful dissembling which envelopes everything in a fog of confusion and yet also simultaneously seems good-natured, entertains us, makes us laugh, and then makes us forget why we were angry at him in the first place. I genuinely had a lot of fun finding and listening to these olds excerpts of Chretien’s greatest hits and leafing through his memoirs; he does make me laugh, and you can’t stay angry at someone who makes you laugh. I hope that you will enjoy some of the highlights as well.
While I was looking at the proposals of the first iteration of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commissions published in part I of the Canada Gazette in 1965, an unusual splash of colour amidst the drab black and white pages caught my eye. The Gazette records the proclamation of the Maple Leaf on 28 January 1965 and published it on 13 February 1965. The Maple Leaf then first flew two days later on 15 February 1965.
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien then designed 15 February 1996 as Canada’s first National Flag of Canada Day, though some of us remember that day more as when Chrétien introduced Canada to the famous Shawinigan Handshake. I could not find any Order-in-Council by which cabinet advised the Governor General to proclaim 15 February National Flag of Canada Day, nor any proclamation in the Canada Gazette, so I know not by what authority Chrétien issued his declaration.
If Canadians think of electoral redistribution at all, they might hold this vague notion that Canada eliminated partisan gerrymandering by delegating the task from politicians to independent boundaries commissions. They might also recall having read or heard something in the news about state supreme courts in various American states ruling specific gerrymanders unconstitutional. But Canada possesses its own sordid history of gerrymandering, where the party in power manipulates the boundaries of electoral districts to maximize the votes of its own supporters and dilute the votes of its opponents, thus consolidating its gains in subsequent general elections and perpetuating its tenure in office.
The House of Commons will expand yet further in 2031 once the Population Estimates for 1 July 2031 become available.
On 19 December 2023, Statistics Canada’s most recent population estimates for 1 October 2023,which showed the largest growth in a single quarter since 1957.[1] Canada’s estimated population for that date stands at 40,528,396.[2] The population estimates for each province and territory break down as follows:
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