{"id":610177,"date":"2026-04-17T12:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/610177\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:23:15","slug":"alberta-government-rejects-commissions-proposed-changes-to-provinces-electoral-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/610177\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta government rejects commission\u2019s proposed changes to province\u2019s electoral map"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government plans to introduce a motion to create an MLA-controlled committee to redraw the province’s electoral boundaries.AMBER BRACKEN\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s government has rejected an independent commission\u2019s proposed changes to the province\u2019s electoral map, fuelling accusations of gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

Instead of adopting the commission\u2019s work, the government gave notice Thursday that it intends to propose a motion to create a new committee, this one controlled by government MLAs, to oversee another effort to redraw the map.<\/p>\n

This would upend Alberta\u2019s long-standing way of updating the boundaries of its constituencies for provincial elections. The shift drew condemnation from the leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party, who said the ruling United Conservative Party\u2019s attempt to seize control of the process was an assault on democracy.<\/p>\n

The commission is the latest iteration of an electoral-boundaries-setting body that Alberta is required under provincial law to convene every eight to 10 years. It reviews the province\u2019s electoral boundaries and proposes changes. The government mandates the number of constituencies the commissioners must incorporate into their map.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a process designed to foster compromise and limit political influence.<\/p>\n

The public dispute over the committee\u2019s latest work began last month when it submitted, for the first time in its history, two very different maps.<\/p>\n

One was supported by a majority of its members: the chair, tapped by the governing UCP, and two panelists selected by the NDP. It was produced after a year of work and public hearings. <\/p>\n

Their map would eliminate two rural ridings to accommodate a population boom in Calgary and Edmonton, where they proposed additional seats. <\/p>\n

The Alberta Opposition NDP calls the move a cynical backdoor scheme to rig the October, 2027 general election.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The UCP dominates rural Alberta, while the NDP\u2019s support is centred in Calgary and Edmonton. <\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s other two members, both tapped by the UCP, put forward a competing map and report. They proposed more than a dozen merged urban and rural ridings, diluting the power of the urban vote.<\/p>\n

They defended it as \u201cnecessary to respond to demographic change, reduce polarization and reflect Alberta\u2019s increasingly interconnected urban-rural landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority called this vision unconstitutional and illogical.<\/p>\n

They said the minority members had proposed ridings in Calgary with sharp population differences, and they questioned whether the dissenters may have drawn boundaries in a way that would boost the UCP\u2019s electoral prospects, a process known as gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat might be the minority\u2019s true motivation for this? Our friends south of the border may have a term for this type of redistricting,\u201d the majority\u2019s report says. Legislators in the United States have long warred over electoral maps, with gerrymandering emerging as a common political tool. <\/p>\n

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi accused the Premier of trying to manipulate the outcome of the next provincial election, tentatively scheduled for October, 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot adopting the commission\u2019s report is cheating. Not adopting the commission\u2019s report is gerrymandering. And in fact, not adopting the report is a full-on assault on our democracy,\u201d Mr. Nenshi said during Question Period on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The government argued that even the commission\u2019s majority yearned for a different outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with regret that we have had to remove two ridings from central and north central Alberta,\u201d the majority report says. The majority said they believe they would have been able to \u201cprovide Albertans with more effective representation\u201d if more seats were available. <\/p>\n

The government in late 2024 brought forward a bill calling for 89 electoral divisions in the next election, up from 87. This will increase the size of the legislature by 2 per cent, although the population has exploded by 20 per cent since the last commission.<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s boundaries commission is handcuffed to the legislated seat count, unlike in Quebec and British Columbia, where similar panels have leeway to calculate how many electoral divisions would be appropriate.<\/p>\n

Dallas Miller, the commission\u2019s chair and a justice of the Court of King\u2019s Bench, said in the report that should legislators disagree with the proposal to remove the two rural seats, the government should increase the number of electoral districts to 91 and restore the deleted constituencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the province as we propose must be maintained to the extent possible,\u201d his recommendation says, adding this could be accomplished through an all-party committee. <\/p>\n

Mr. Miller made this recommendation on his own, rather than with the support of other panelists. <\/p>\n

Ms. Smith dismissed the Opposition\u2019s accusations of cheating, countering that the government\u2019s plan is designed to \u201cpreserve representation in rural Alberta\u201d and leans on the chair\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to read the report and understand what the judge was not comfortable with,\u201d she said. \u201cHe lamented losing rural ridings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s proposed motion does not require the final map to reflect Mr. Miller\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n

Former Alberta Party leader Greg Clark served on the boundaries commission, thanks to a nod from the NDP. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want elected officials drawing their own maps, so we give independent commissions that job,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The majority may have proposed a map with 91 constituencies, had that option been available, he said. But that would have required redistributing all the electoral divisions, rather than just reinstating the two deleted rural ridings. <\/p>\n

Lisa Young, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said the UCP is breaking norms, but it is too early to call the governing party electoral cheats. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs this a process that might lend itself to that? Yes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Prof. Young said the boundaries commission itself broke with tradition when two members produced their own work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of a unanimous report is essential to the credibility of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reports from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government plans to introduce a motion to create an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-610177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}