The Supreme Court’s written reasons in the Quebec case - to be published at a later date - could have wider implications, with Alberta this week restarting the process of overhauling its own electoral map.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Wednesday that a Quebec law delaying the adoption of a new electoral map is unconstitutional.
Chief Justice Richard Wagner announced the 7-2 ruling in the afternoon, after the top court heard the case in the morning. Quebec’s next provincial election is on Oct. 5.
The Supreme Court will publish its reasons at a later date. The ruling upholds a judgment last December from the Quebec Court of Appeal.
The case on the composition of Quebec’s 125 ridings and who has the final say on the boundaries illustrates the political tension over population declines in some regions and gains in others. Any changes must ensure all votes are accorded what a 1991 Supreme Court precedent called “effective representation.”
The Supreme Court’s eventual written reasons in the Quebec case could also soon have wider implications. Alberta is working on a new electoral map, and Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party this week restarted the process after rejecting an independent commission’s proposal. The Opposition and other critics accused Ms. Smith of gerrymandering – where an incumbent government redraws riding boundaries to its advantage.
Alberta’s UCP government votes to restart process of overhauling provincial electoral map
Gerrymandering wasn’t the issue in the Quebec case, but the fundamental question of voter representation was a key issue at the top court. Section 3 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – on democratic rights – guarantees only the rights of citizens to vote and to run in a provincial or federal election.
In 2023, Quebec’s Commission de la représentation électorale proposed a new map that would reduce three ridings in the Gaspé Peninsula northeast of Quebec City to two. A riding in east Montreal was also cut. Two new ridings were added: one in Centre-du-Québec between Montreal and Quebec City; and one northwest of Montreal in the Laurentians.
In May, 2024, parties in the National Assembly unanimously passed a law to postpone the proposed map until after this year’s election. A group of elected officials from the Laurentians challenged the law in court and won.
After the Supreme Court judgment on Wednesday, Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette said her government will table another law, with opposition parties, to protect the two ridings set to be cut from the map.
Last December, the province’s top court, the Quebec Court of Appeal, ruled the 2024 law violated Section 3 of the Charter and was unconstitutional. The appeal court said the government decision negatively affected voters in Centre-du-Québec and the Laurentians. It also marked a circumvention of the Quebec Election Act’s independent review process.
“The existence of parliamentary consensus, such as a unanimous vote on any measure, cannot serve as justification for a violation of a Charter right,” the appeal court said in a summary of its decision.
Three conservative-led provinces, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, supported Quebec in court. The provinces all argued that the Supreme Court should defer to legislatures on questions of voters’ effective representation.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association was an intervener at the Supreme Court. Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, a director at the association, said that while the Quebec situation isn’t gerrymandering, elected officials drawing electoral maps is a clear sign of apparent bias.
“We were there to sound the alarm,” Ms. McNicoll said.
Opinion: Possible changes to Alberta’s electoral map put democracy at risk
In Alberta, the UCP government’s move to take control of the electoral map will likely spark legal challenges. The reasons from the Supreme Court in the Quebec case, depending on the details, could have an impact in Alberta, Ms. McNicoll said.
The history of court judgments on what the Charter’s democratic rights include is somewhat sparse. In 1991, a Supreme Court ruling on electoral boundaries in Saskatchewan established the limited idea of effective representation.
Justice Colin Feasby of Alberta’s superior court in recent months delivered speeches at several universities titled “Defining Democratic Rights.” Among his observations was one related to the 1991 top court ruling: The Supreme Court said nothing about what Justice Feasby described as “ample evidence in the Saskatchewan Electoral Boundaries case that the electoral map in question was drawn to help re-elect the incumbent Saskatchewan government.”
In his written remarks, Justice Feasby more broadly stated: “One of the greatest risks to democracy is elected governments making electoral laws that favour their own re-election.”