The road to power in Quebec doesn’t run through Montreal, so it has long been said.

And every couple of election cycles, that maxim becomes a little more true.

Whenever the independent Commission de la représentation électorale (CRE) revises the map of Quebec ridings, Montreal almost always loses another seat in the 125-member National Assembly — despite being North America’s only French-speaking metropolis, the province’s economic engine, and home to more than a fifth of the province’s population.

In 2001, the districts of Jeanne-Mance and Viger were merged, as were Bourassa and Sauvé — a subtraction of two.

Montreal was spared in the next redraft in 2011. But in 2017, Mont-Royal and Outremont were lumped together. A court challenge by citizens was dismissed.

Now the city’s clout in the National Assembly is set to shrink yet again. According to the latest recalibration, put forward by the CRE in 2024, three east-end ridings — Anjou–Louis-Riel, LaFontaine and Pointe-aux-Trembles — are going to be whittled down to two in time for the next election in October. They will be christened Anjou–LaFontaine and Pointe-aux-Prairies.

As Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada lamented last week: “Losing a riding also unfortunately means losing political weight.”

Montreal’s influence has been steadily eroding for decades as the CRE makes adjustments to ensure equal representation among different regions of Quebec based on population shifts.

But Montreal’s standing is not the main reason the National Assembly sought to override the CRE’s latest electoral map revisions with a law — a move that the Supreme Court of Canada last week invalidated and deemed unconstitutional,........

© Montreal Gazette