electoral quotient

The total population of the provinces (excluding the territories) is then divided by 279 to equal the electoral quotient.

Quebec was only entitled to 68 seats by the electoral quotient alone, but through the grandfather clause the province gained seven seats to equal the 75 seats it had in the 33rd Parliament.

In 2004, for example, Prince Edward Island would have been entitled to only a single seat according to the electoral quotient, but through the senatorial clause the province gained three more seats to equal its four senators.

The electoral quotient needed to win one of the 90 National Assembly seats was obtained by dividing the number of valid votes in each region by the number of representatives that had been assigned to each region, proportional to its population.

Citing the region's highly distinct identity and seeing it as a community of interest they have the legal duty to respect, successive electoral boundary commissions have used their ability to make exceptions to the general electoral quotient to maintain Labrador as a separate riding.

The total population of Canada's provinces is thus divided by 279, resulting in an "electoral quotient", and then the population of each individual province is divided by this electoral quotient to determine the number of seats to which the province is officially entitled.