Under Quebec's current system, ridings have been kept to a maximum 125 by periodically redrawing constituency boundaries to make sure no riding rose too far above or fell too far below an average of 45,000 voters.
The steady movement of Quebecers out of the regions into urban centres has meant that to stay within range of the average, some rural ridings have become vast, sprawling areas.
But the principle is clear: The number of voters per riding should be roughly equivalent so that a vote in one riding has the same political clout as one in another.
Today's electoral map is full of anomalies, however: A vote cast in the Gaspé (27,000 eligible voters) has double the political weight of one in Masson (64,000 voters).
Since 2007, Quebec's director-general of elections, Marcel Blanchet, has been working to correct the map, realigning voters with ridings. In a nearly completed draft, Blanchet proposed getting rid of three thinly populated ridings, the Gaspé, Beauce-Nord and Kamouraska-Témiscouata and replacing them with new ridings in the more densely populated areas north and south of Montreal.
This sensible start ran right into the objections of Claude Béchard, minister of agriculture, fisheries and food, minister for democratic reform and - more importantly in terms of constituency reform - the MNA for Kamouraska-Témiscouata.
Béchard this week threw out Blanchet's $1-million draft plan, tabling instead Bill 78, which outlines a whole new way of drawing up the electoral map.
Béchard intends to abolish the 125 minimum, instead creating a minimum number of seats for each of the province's administrative regions. The number of ridings could jump to 134 or even reach 150.
Do we need that many MNAs? Say we end up with 150, that works out to one MNA per 52,000 Quebecers. Our neighbours in Ontario get by with 107 MPPs, or one for 121,000 residents.
The Charest government seems to be proceeding on the basis that it makes a difference to governance how big ridings get. But we live in a huge province, most of which is sparsely populated. In even the biggest riding, in a world of Internet and teleconferencing, an MNA can keep in touch with his or her constituents without having to travel great distances.
There are some obvious solutions: The Magdalen Islands could be subsumed into Gaspé. And rather than divide Ungava into two ridings - Ungava and Nunavik - keep just the one.
Over the years, Quebec has gotten into the bad habit of adding more people to the public payroll whenever it's faced with difficult decisions. It's time to stop.