Boundary redraw brings nothing good to the table

The new electoral boundary redraws in Alberta have brought nothing but controversy for the United Conservative Party (UCP). This dispute comes from one place: the new hybrid ridings. The Alberta New Democratic (NDP) leader Naheed Nenshi has called out the UCP as having gerrymandered the ridings. At the same time, this situation does nothing but make the UCP look scared for the upcoming provincial election. But, if these boundaries don’t change, Alberta’s next election will likely have a similar result to previous elections for all the wrong reasons.

The new redraw has many questionable choices, but the new hybrid boundaries seem to take the number one spot. Originally, the seats were to change from 87 to 89. But, now with the controversy that has come up, there is a new proposed Members of the Legislative Assembly-led committee that would look at 91 seats. With this, there’s the possibility of even more hybrid ridings. These hybrid boundaries connect urban and rural communities into one riding. This is done so that ridings all have a similar number of people voting. The goal is 56,000 people per riding, but it’s clear that goal was not given its full attention. For example, the Central Peace-Notley riding has 28,517 people while Calgary-McKenzie has 62,722 people. A person voting in Central Peace-Notley has at least double the voting power of those voting in the Calgary-McKenzie riding.

Premier Danielle Smith has commented on the issue by claiming she has no part in the process, and has no influence whatsoever. But, Nenshi has rebutted Smith’s claim by pointing out that the UCP-appointed members of the Electoral Boundaries Commission did a complete 180 and issued a different report and maps compared to what would have been logical. His claim here is that there is some kind of intervention and pressure coming from somewhere within the UCP caucus. Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that the redraw has some more upsides for UCP voters than it does for NDP voters.

A big part of Alberta in the last 10 years is the population growth. In 2016 the population sat around four million, but has now increased to five million. This growth is both normal and good for Alberta. But, the electoral boundaries need to represent that.

It is known, from many previous elections, that Alberta’s rural population often votes centre-right and that urban populations vote more centre-left. But, for things to be fair for everyone, electoral boundaries need to give representation to all voters. Rural voters should not have their vote diminished by urban voters, and vice versa. Even though some ridings look especially large in comparison to others, it’s people that vote, not land. And all of this brings us back to the thoughtlessness of hybrid ridings.

All of Alberta should have their say and their own vote which means rural and urban areas shouldn’t clash especially hard. The new hybrid riding Calgary-Glenmore-Tsuut’ina now takes into account both urban and rural areas. But, Calgary is a generally very split voting demographic. Previously, in the 2023 provincial election, Calgary-Glenmore had a very tight race between NDP and UCP votes. NDP had 12,687 votes and UCP had 12,639. The margins could not get any closer. Now though, that Calgary-Glenmore has added in a more rural part of Alberta, Tsuut’ina, makes the riding have a higher chance to shift over to the UCP.

What this shows is that UCP is getting worried about the upcoming election. The UCP has been on a bad rollercoaster of untimely decisions and policies. The teachers are unhappy, the universities are unhappy, and many people across Alberta are unhappy. Even an addition of two seats, to the original additional two, could significantly sway an election in one direction or another. At the end of the day, this tactic to redraw ridings into UCP ridings is downright ridiculous.

Alberta is always changing, and voters can make that known under fair circumstances. Hopefully Nenshi can point the courts into the right direction to find if anything undemocratic has been taking place in these redraws. For now, though, all anyone can do is make their voices heard — showing that every voter in Alberta deserves a fair and equal vote.