Gerrymandering in Québec and Canada has a long record. One of the first examples was in 1839, when Governor-General Lord Sydenham, knowing that the majority of the population in the former Lower Canada was strongly opposed to a
Gerrymandering in Québec and Canada has a long record. One of the first examples was in 1839, when Governor-General Lord Sydenham, knowing that the majority of the population in the former Lower Canada was strongly opposed to a union with Higher Canada, had to manage a way to force the adoption of the Act of Union. He made sure that suburban areas close to Montréal, Québec and Trois-Rivière, all inhabited mainly by French-speaking people, would be attached to rural constituencies instead of urban ones. With this recomposition, not only did the English-speaking minority – which was dominant in urban centre – become over-represented, but the majority of the French-speaking population in the suburbs were denied the right to vote, because tenants had no right to vote in rural districts at that time.
Gerrymandering was an important tool of the Duplessis régime between 1936-1939 and 1944-1959. The electoral map had not been revised between 1853 and 1960. This greatly advantaged the conservative Union Nationale party of Duplessis, since rural to urban migration resulted in the population of Montréal constituencies (generally closer to the Liberal Party) often totalled up to 55,000, whereas in rural areas, generally favourable to the Union Nationale, the average population per constituency would be around 5000.
Another example of gerrymandering in Montréal has to do with the federal riding of Cartier, in which Fred Rose was elected twice. In this riding, the Labour-Progressive (Communist) Party was a dominant force from the 1930s until the beginning of the 1950s, when the constituency was changed to include wealthier areas until its final dismantling in 1968.
These cases show how gerrymandering has been used in a partisan way, always favourable to the elites and to harm progressive people, the working class and the popular masses. All these examples occurred before a specific law regulated the modification of the electoral map, but the adoption of such a law in 1979 in Québec unfortunately didn’t prevent the use of this tactic to help ruling parties hold on to some regions.
This is what almost happened recently with the Québec Liberals’ attempt to suppress the Montreal riding of Ste-Marie-St-Jacques, currently represented by LGBTQ+ activist Manon Massé under the banner of Québec Solidaire.
(Québec Solidaire was launched in 2006 after the union of Françoise David’s “Option citoyenne” movement and the Union des forces progressistes coalition formed by the Parti communiste du Québec amongst others. This unique formation represents the most progressive elements of the social and labour movements of Québec, and stresses social issues over the national question. QS currently holds three seats in the National Assembly.)
It all started in 2015, when the Chief Electoral Officer was asked to present to the National Assembly a first preliminary report on a project to update