Representation of the Two Solitudes

When talking about polls in Quebec, reference is often made to the large number of seats that are decided by the francophone vote. I thought it would be interesting to take a quick glance at the francophone ridings in all of Canada, and how they are represented.

My quick estimation is that there are 72 francophone ridings in Canada, that is to say, 72 ridings in which people whose mother tongue is French form the largest linguistic group (split into French, English, and all other languages).

Out of these 72, 68 of them are in Quebec. The seven other seats in Quebec are all on the island of Montreal. Three more are in New Brunswick (Acadie-Bathurst, Beauséjour, and Madawaska-Restigouche) and the last is in Ontario (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell).

So, what we get is that 49 of the 72 francophone ridings (or 68%) are held by the Bloc Quebecois. The Conservatives hold the second most seats, with 11 (or 15%). The Liberals hold nine (or 13%), the New Democrats two (or 3%), and one is held by an independent.

Out of the remaining 236 non-francophone ridings, the Conservatives currently hold 132 (56%), the Liberals 68 (29%), the New Democrats 35 (15%), and one is held by an independent.