Press release
Electoral map reform in the hands of the DGEQ:
good news for the city
Montréal, July 6, 2011 – The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal welcomes the decision of the Government of Quebec to once again award the mandate of electoral map reform to the Directeur général des élections du Québec. “This decision offers hope that the existing inequalities that have compromised fair electoral representation in urban areas will be corrected,” said Michel Leblanc, President and CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal. “This is good news for the metropolitan area, it’s good news for Quebec democracy and it’s what we were asking for.”
The Board of Trade conducted the 
campaign, as part of which it sent a pair of identical but different sized pens to the 125 members of the National Assembly. This gesture was meant to show that Quebec citizens are not equal when they go to the polls. The Board of Trade also released a position paper by law professor Stéphane Beaulac raising serious doubts about the constitutionality of reform plans defended by the government and the official opposition.
“The Board of Trade keenly opposed the two main parties’ proposals, which would have resulted in a denial of electoral justice,” Michel Leblanc said. “On the other hand, the plan initially presented by the Directeur général des élections seems to us to be fair. If the metropolitan area represents 50% of the Quebec population, the electoral map should reflect that. It is the electors, and not the regions, that have the right to representation in the National Assembly. Electors in the metropolitan area are full citizens, and their electoral weight should reflect that fact.”
“In the past, Montréal lost ridings when population shifts justified it,” Mr. Leblanc said. “We should not flout this rule now to disadvantage the metropolitan area for the benefit of the regions, the population of which is dropping. This is not a question of favouring Montréal, but of giving it its fair share of democratic representation. We now ask the Directeur général des élections du Québec to correct the iniquities on the existing map to represent the city’s demographic weight.”
For more information, please visit www.inegale.info (in French only).
The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal is made up of some 7,000 members. Its mission is to represent the interests of the business community of Greater Montréal and to provide individuals, merchants, and local businesses of all sizes with a variety of specialized services to help them achieve their full potential in terms of innovation, productivity and competitiveness. The Board of Trade is Quebec's leading private economic development organization.
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Source:
Geneviève Jutras
Advisor, Communications
Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal
Phone: 514 871-4000, extension 4042
gjutras@ccmm.qc.ca