Alberta Electoral Boundaries

The UCP is trying to rig the next election before it even happens because they do not think they can win it fairly. They’re hoping that Albertans won’t notice.

Two weeks ago, the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission released its final report setting out recommendations for the areas, boundaries, and names of the 89 electoral divisions for the next provincial election.

This is the result of almost a year of consultation by the Commission with Albertans. Twenty-eight public hearings were held across the province. Thousands of Albertans attended, and over a thousand Albertans provided written submissions to the Commission on what they thought the boundaries should be for the next provincial election. This stuff matters to our representative democracy and Albertans showed up in a big way!

The Commission is an independent body tasked with determining the province’s electoral boundaries, ensuring that ridings are distributed fairly based on population. The key here is independence - the Commission’s role is to create fair and balanced ridings, free from political influence. You cannot have elected representatives choosing our own electoral boundaries for the next election. We are too self-interested.

This independence of the Commission is what gives it legitimacy. And with any other government, the Commission’s recommendations would be accepted without any issue.

But, the UCP government is threatening to interfere in the process. The Commission has provided its final recommendation for the future electoral map based on fair distribution of population and the input from thousands of Albertans. And now, the UCP won’t commit to accepting the Commission's recommendations.

This is a consistent theme with the UCP. For them, it is all about power, not about service.

The Justice Minister and Attorney General of Alberta, Mickey Amery, indicated that the UCP could reject the recommendations of the Commission – in fact, he said “all options are on the table”. If they reject the Commission’s report in favour of another option, this would be an assault on democracy – the most severe of its kind in the long history of Canada’s democracy.

When Albertans cast their votes, they are placing their trust in the integrity of the system. They trust that elections are fair and that their voices will be heard. But when electoral boundaries are manipulated to favour one party, regardless of how people actually vote, that trust is undermined, and the system loses its legitimacy.

There are some things in our province that should be beyond a politician's control. By design, the Commission was created specifically to take politics out of the process of drawing ridings. It was meant to ensure that no party could rig the election for their own advantage.

To stop this attack on our democracy, the UCP must hear clearly from Albertans across the province: the only acceptable path forward is the full implementation of the Commission's majority report. Anything short of that, risks undermining the fairness of the next election.

This moment may not feel dramatic, but it is important. It could mark a turning point in the province’s political history. Please write and call your local MLA, me included, and urge all Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta to accept the recommendations of the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission.