Quebec tables bill to increase number of ridings to 127 after Supreme Court decision

Quebec Minister of the French Language Jean-Francois Roberge tables legislation on French language at the legislature in Quebec City, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

QUÉBEC — The Quebec government has tabled a bill to increase the number of ridings in the province to 127 from 125.

Jean-François Roberge, minister of democratic institutions, said his bill is supported by the Liberals, Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire.

The bill is the government’s latest attempt to prevent Montreal and the Gaspé Peninsula from losing ridings in the redrawn map by the independent electoral boundaries commission.

The commission had proposed eliminating one riding in Gaspé and another in Montreal’s east end in favour of two new districts in the growing Laurentians/Lanaudière and Centre-du-Québec regions.

The Quebec government passed a law to block the changes in 2024, but that law was deemed unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal and eventually by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Members of all parties had expressed concerns that the commission’s map would have taken away political weight from Gaspé and made ridings in eastern Quebec overly large.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2026.

Thomas Laberge, The Canadian Press