Quebec government to ask Supreme Court of Canada to weigh in on electoral map changes

MONTREAL — The Quebec government says it will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in an effort to block a redrawing of the provincial electoral map.

Premier François Legault’s government tabled a law in 2024 to prevent the electoral boundaries commission from removing a riding on the Gaspé Peninsula and another in Montreal’s east end in favour of two new districts in the growing Laurentians/Lanaudière and Centre-du-Québec regions.

In a statement Tuesday, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said members from all parties had voted to adopt the law, which was sparked by concerns that the new map would take away political weight from Gaspé and make ridings in eastern Quebec overly large.

“Citizens from all regions and their realities must be well represented,” Jolin-Barrette said.

But the province’s highest court ruled on Dec. 1 that the law is unconstitutional and violates sections of the Charter that guarantee democratic rights. Justice Mark Schrager wrote that the law would dilute the vote of citizens in some regions to the benefit of those elsewhere and “circumvent the independent process provided for by the Election Act.”

The Court of Appeal decision noted that the law would also suspend all the changes to the map, not only the contentious ones.

“Therefore, the beneficial effects of the (law) would benefit 65,000 voters in only two ridings at the expense of diluting the vote of nearly half a million electors.”

Quebec election law requires that the province’s electoral map be reviewed after every two general elections to account for changes in population, with a goal of dividing Quebec into 125 ridings with an approximately equal number of voters in each.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 24, 2025.