Province slammed for electoral boundaries plans

Posted on April 30, 2026 by Ryan Dahlman

By Zoe Mason
Southern Alberta Newspapers

The UCP government is throwing out the electoral boundaries commission report and starting again from scratch.

The bipartisan commission collected feedback and deliberated for nearly a year before issuing a final report last month.

Customarily, that report would be put in front of the legislature for discussion, minor amendments and ultimately a vote. But a motion in the order papers released ahead of the April 16 sitting of the legislature outlined the government’s plans to throw that report out entirely and establish a new committee – with a UCP majority this time – to redraw electoral boundaries once again.

“It’s very difficult to see this as anything but the UCP attempting to cheat and rig the next election,” said Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi in an interview with Southern Alberta Newspapers.

“Political science nerds are really up in arms about this, but every Albertan should be up in arms about it. Your right to vote, your right to have a free and fair election – that’s not stuff you should be worried about in Canada.”

The commission submitted a majority report to government in March, endorsed by the two-NDP appointed members of the commission and the UCP-appointed chair, justice Dallas Miller. It also submitted a minority report composed by the two UCP MLAs on the commission that drew out drastically different electoral boundaries.

This year’s commission was marked by an unusual degree of disagreement – while it’s not abnormal for a submission to include a minority report outlining points of divergence, it is unprecedented for that report to contain an entirely separate set of maps.

The maps presented by the UCP-authored minority report include a large number of new ridings that splice urban and rural populations. Justice Miller expressed his concern that the minority report was unconstitutional and warned against its adoption.

He also wrote that it “seems to be motivated by other considerations” than effective representation, suggesting the minority report was inspired by political redistricting referred to as gerrymandering in U.S. politics.

The motion outlined April 16 proposes creating a special select MLA committee, composed of three UCP MLAs, two NDP MLAs, and chaired by UCP MLA Brandon Lunty, to explore increasing the number of seats in the house further.

In a statement released by the UCP caucus on April 16, Leduc-Beaumont MLA Lunty says the new committee is being formed in response to the previous commission’s complaint that 91 total electoral divisions would have allowed for more effective representation.

Alberta is represented by 87 electoral districts. The mandate of the commission was to increase that number by two.

The majority report recommends eliminating two rural ridings in central and Northern Alberta and creating four new ridings in the Calgary and Edmonton areas.

In the commission’s report, Miller advocated for expansion of Alberta’s ridings to 91 ahead of the next general election, a recommendation he wrote that his majority colleagues did not share.

Premier Danielle Smith defended the move on the basis of Miller’s suggestion during Question Period on April 16.

“We are supporting the majority report with the recommendation of the judge to not deprive rural Alberta of representation,” she said.

The last provincial electoral boundaries commission was carried out in 2017 under the government of NDP premier Rachel Notley. The results of that commission resulted in changes to several constituency borders, including Medicine Hat, where the urban riding was divided into two new ridings that combined city voters with the surrounding rural populations.

But that government adopted the majority report’s recommendations.

“That was actually really bad for the New Democrats, because we do really well in the city of Medicine Hat, we had an MLA there. But Premier Notley actually believed in the independence of the commission,” said Nenshi.

Nenshi says the UCP’s move to throw out the commission’s report is unprecedented and undemocratic. The proposed committee replacing the report would also forego a requirement for public hearings.

Thousands of Albertans contributed to the recent commission’s work by submitting written statements or participating in open houses.

“I cannot imagine how you think there would be any legitimacy in a report that has no public input into it,” said Nenshi.

“(But) they don’t want Albertans to say they don’t want them to do what they’re about to do.”

Nenshi says he expects fierce opposition in the legislature.

“What will happen is we’re going to fight like hell.”

He also says he anticipates a legal challenge may be forthcoming.

“People’s voting rights are guaranteed under Section 3 of the constitution, and the notwithstanding clause can’t be used on Section 3. You can’t get around it. And the courts have taken a pretty strict view that people’s right to vote in free and fair elections is fundamental to Canada.”

The new committee will have access to the information collected by the electoral boundaries commission. The motion requires the committee to submit a report to the legislature on an expedited timeline, by Nov. 2.

“Don’t leave this one to the nerds,” said Nenshi. “If we don’t have fair elections, we don’t have anything. If we don’t stand up for our simple right to vote in the government that we need, we have a big problem.”