While Quebec continues to debate electoral district boundaries, another, more subtle battle continues in the shadows. Elected officials are racing to add new names to their districts that they consider more representative, but they say they are running into strict rules in doing so.
Amélie Dionne regularly makes it a point to illustrate what she calls illogical. In her communication with the media, the elected CAQ representative presents herself as MP for Rivière-du-Loup-Témiscouata (including Les Basques).
This place name even briefly appeared in the National Assembly during her oath last year. At his side was a laughing François Legault, fascinated by his colleague’s unusual approach.
Open in full screen mode
The MP for Rivière-du-Loup-Témiscouata, Amélie Dionne (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / François Gagnon
Far from being trivial in the eyes of the main character, these brackets serve to ensure that the 20% of the population she represents does not forget. Several citizens are currently emphasizing this feeling of exclusion and confusion with the absence of the name of the Basques, testifies Amélie Dionne.
This is because the battle to include Basques in the name of this county has been going on for more than a decade now. This fight is mainly led by its prefect Bertin Denis, who maintains that the name of a constituency is by no means purely symbolic.
Indeed, in Les Basques, the absence of the region’s name in the constituency’s toponym is symptomatic of a broader sense of oblivion – at least in the eyes of its prefect – of the territory it represented.
Open in full screen mode
Trois-Pistoles and the MRC des Basques want to retain their seat in the name of their constituency. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / François Gagnon
Bertin Denis gives the example of Club Appalaches, the last private hunting and fishing club in Quebec, located in the unorganized territory (TNO) of Lac-Boisbouscache. [Ce sont] People from outside the MRC [qui] have rights and eternal privileges in the territory, he regrets. We have the impression that the MRC des Basques belongs to everyone.
We’re losing our forest, we’re losing our deer and elk, and then there’s the name of the county.
Especially since the Basques will also lose 10% of their territory through the merger of Saint-Guy and Lac-des-Aigles, a municipality in the neighboring MRC Témiscouata.
However, it is in this region that we are experiencing the strongest demographic growth in Bas-Saint-Laurent, recalls Mr. Denis. They’re trying to make us look like a poor MRC. It is extremely disappointing to hear this.
Open in full screen mode
Bertin Denis is tired of seeing his territory forgotten in more ways than one. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / François Gagnon
With each redistricting, the elected official came back to enforce Les Basques on behalf of the constituency. Every attempt failed, which leaves a bitter aftertaste today. It’s always the same, it’s Groundhog Day every time.
Especially since the name of the Basques has been deleted from the name of the federal constituency, which will see the light of day when the new electoral map comes into force in April 2024.
Open in full screen mode
The federal election map, which will come into force in April. Eastern Quebec will lose a route, that of Avignon-La Mitis-Matane-Matapédia. (archive image)
Photo: Radio-Canada
The name of a constituency is important because we often mention it, emphasizes Pascal Bérubé, MP for Matane-Matapédia. We talk about it in the National Assembly, we talk about it in more formal moments… It’s not flirting.
The PQ MP has long campaigned to add the name La Mitis to the constituency he represents. He says he has a bill in hand ready to be tabled to force Élections Québec to include La Mitis in the name of its riding. His filing was delayed, he explains, because he had to concentrate on the debate over the electoral map.
Open in full screen mode
A view of a residential area of Mont-Joli in La Mitis. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / François Gagnon
However, adding or removing even a proper name or a hyphen in the name of a constituency is far from easy, as the rules adopted by Élections Québec demonstrate.
Frame the dashes
In general, the Electoral Representation Commission (CRÉ) prefers a single toponym for the name of a provincial district to avoid a name representing only a list of the areas to which it belongs. On the other hand, if the juxtaposition is considered unavoidable, it will be limited to two elements, favoring names with a historical or cultural tradition, says the CRÉ.
Therefore, it is impossible for a Quebec constituency to have more than two toponyms, as Amélie Dionne and the Basque elected representatives demand.
Open in full screen mode
The Quebec Electoral Representation Commission is a separate body from the Office of the Director-General of Elections. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Bruno Giguère
This is one of Élections Québec’s guidelines when it comes to naming constituencies, rules based on the recommendations of the Commission de toponymie du Québec.
Furthermore, for stability reasons, Élections Québec does not change electoral districts, whose boundaries remain unchanged from one redistribution to the next. A name already in use represents a better reference point for the population than a new name, argues Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet, spokesperson for Élections Québec, via email.
Rules for naming constituencies
1. A constituency whose boundaries are not changed retains its name.
2. A constituency whose boundaries are changed retains its name unless the territorial change has the effect of rendering it inappropriate.
3. When a new constituency is created or its boundaries are changed and this justifies the giving of a new name, the CRÉ relies on six additional guidelines, in particular reference to geography or history or even inclusion [du nom] of a character with an honorary title.
Source: Elections Quebec
Since the CRÉ has no plans to change the boundaries of Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata, it would be very unlikely that this constituency would be renamed.
However, the local MP doesn’t budge. I think there is scope to review the criteria and remedy the situation, says Amélie Dionne, calling for the Commission to be more flexible in its guidelines when assigning names.
At the federal level, for example, the Geographical Names Board of Canada opens the door for name changes from one revision to another if they are not suitable.
Elections Canada does not impose a maximum number of toponyms that can contain the name of a constituency, but generally limits them to four.
For example, if elections are called after April 2024, the west of Bas-Saint-Laurent will elect the member for Côte-du-Sud–Rivière-du-Loup–Kataskomiq–Témiscouata, making it the constituency that receives the most votes Hyphens and hyphens in the country.
In addition, the place name Rivière-du-Loup was almost omitted from the final name. It ended up being added at the last minute.
It should be noted that in the last federal redistricting, the Boundary Commission boasted of including the toponyms of all of Quebec’s First Nations, as well as those of the Inuit Nation. An initiative aimed at reconciliation, the commission wrote last June. This is the case with us with Kataskomiq toponyms that attest to the presence of the Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nation or even Listuguj for the Mi’gmaq.
However, Élections Québec states that the names assigned to constituencies are not necessarily linked to the RCMs they represent.
[Les noms] existed before the creation of the MRCs and refer primarily to natural or inhabited places in the territory, explains the spokesman for Élections Québec, citing as an example Matane-Matapédia, which existed since 1890 and 1922 respectively.
Drafting a bill to change these rules while preserving Gaspésie’s political weight is not in the cards for the CAQ government.
Open in full screen mode
For the PQ Pascal Bérubé, the benefits of including “La Mitis” in the name of the constituency he represents are “obvious”. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Sylvain Roy Roussel
Matane–Matapédia–Mitis–Haute-Gaspésie?
Riding farms whose boundaries change may change their name, but as you would expect it is not an open bar.
The Matane-Matapédia county could therefore change its name… or not. Everything will depend on whether the Electoral Representation Commission considers that the new boundaries, which would now include Haute-Gaspésie, justify assigning a new, more representative name.
Open in full screen mode
The new constituency created by the merger of Gaspé and Bonaventure will bring together these two toponyms. Élections Québec considers the “juxtaposition of the names of the former constituencies concerned to be acceptable, provided that these names do not already contain composite names”. (archive image)
Photo: Radio-Canada
But again, the CRÉ requires that the name of a department whose boundaries change remains appropriate if the reasons for its name remain valid.
For example, the name of a constituency that contains a reference to a geographical location (river, city, mountain, etc.) remains indicated if that location still fully or sufficiently belongs to that area.
Therefore, when the CRÉ merged the Matane and Matapédia constituencies in 2011, it concluded that the juxtaposition of the two names was sufficient, even if this district also includes the La Mitis region.
As a reminder, the Matane constituency also included Haute-Gaspésie before its merger in 2011, although only the place name Matanese was retained at that time.
What if the Commission turned around and decided that Matane-Matapédia needed to be renamed? Pascal Bérubé would have no problem representing a riding area called Matane–Matapédia–Mitis–Haute-Gaspésie. Haute-Gaspésie is one of the regions most in need of recognition and one of the least likely to receive it, emphasizes Pascal Bérubé.
However, the rule then comes up again that a name can be limited to a maximum of two elements.
Open in full screen mode
If re-elected in Matane-Matapédia in 2026, Pascal Bérubé fears becoming a “less good” MP due to the larger territory he will have to cover in his constituency. (archive photo)
Photo: National Assembly of Quebec / Claude Mathieu
A personality that avoids arguments?
Occasionally, a mount may also bear the name of an important Quebec figure to pay tribute to them. This is particularly the case with Jacques-Cartier, Marie-Victorin and Maurice-Richard.
The proposal put forward by Élections Québec in September calls for the creation of a new constituency called Marie-Lacoste-Gérin-Lajoie in the Centre-du-Québec region. This name highlights the legacy of this suffragette and pioneer of the Quebec feminist movement.
At home, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Quebec proposed in 2012 that Montmagny–L’Islet–Kamouraska–Rivière-du-Loup be replaced by Elzéar-Bernier, a famous sailor born in L’Islet. However, this suggestion did not last long.
Open in full screen mode
The Montmagny-L’Islet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup riding area could have been renamed Elzéar-Bernier in 2012 in honor of this famous captain of L’Islet. (archive image)
Photo: Provided by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Quebec, 2012
However, the idea of replacing toponyms with a figure’s name is met with a cool reception by those who want changes to the names of constituencies. This obscures the geographical dimension, argues Pascal Bérubé.
It’s good to honor René Lévesque and Maurice Duplessis, but I don’t think it says much about the North Coast.
Open in full screen mode
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Pascal Paradis greeted Jean-Talon motorists the day after the Parti Québécois won that race. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Louis-Philippe Arsenault
Furthermore, given the by-election in Jean-Talon, the Parti Québécois stated that Pascal Paradis was running for Sainte-Foy and Sillery and not Jean-Talon. “That was my idea,” smiles Pascal Bérubé.
“For my part,” said the prefect Bertin Denis simply, “I am completely against the idea of replacing toponyms with the names of characters.” It could be an event, a place or the general location… Why should we Don’t call the riding area “Bas-Saint-Laurent Center”?