Electoral boundary redo due to parameters laid out by government

Posted on May 21, 2026 by Ryan Dahlman

By Zoe Mason
Southern Alberta Newspapers

The UCP government says a new electoral boundaries committee is necessary because of faulty parameters of the last commission – parameters the UCP government set themselves.

On April 23, Justice Minister Mickey Amery introduced legislation that would amend the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act to expand the mandate for ridings from 89 proposed electoral divisions to 91.

The government motion to replace the boundary commission’s recommendations was passed earlier in April.

“Even the two appointees from the NDP lamented having only 89 seats,” said Premier Danielle Smith. “So we’re listening to the majority of the appointed commissioners and the addendum from the judge saying we should go up to 91 seats.”

The recent commission was convened at the order of the legislative assembly after Amery introduced a bill in November 2024. That commission provided the mandate to add only two new provincial electoral divisions, increasing the ridings on the electoral map from 87 to 89.

The 2024 bill also removed a requirement that divisions adhere to municipal boundaries for Edmonton and Calgary, allowing for the kind of rural-urban ridings used in Medicine Hat.

Heather Jenkins, press secretary to Minister Amery, says the 2024 amendment increased the number of seats to reflect Alberta’s significant population growth.

The electoral boundary commission’s final report, issued in March, expressed that the mandate to add only two seats did not keep up with the growth of Alberta’s population.

“The size of the legislature is increasing by two per cent despite the population increasing by 20 per cent,” read the report.

“It is with regret that we have had to remove two ridings from central and north central Alberta to meet the demands of the high population in and around Calgary and Edmonton.”

Amery’s office did not respond to a question about how the 89-seat figure was originally reached.

Alberta’s population grew by more than 650,000 between the time the last electoral boundaries commission released its report in October 2017 and the time Amery ordered a new commission in 2024. It has grown by fewer than 90,000 since that time.

The commission recommended the subsequent commission be provided with a more appropriate number of electoral divisions, or that the commission itself be empowered to increase the number of electoral divisions if warranted.

An addendum to the majority report endorsed only by the commission chair, Justice Dallas Miller, suggested that in the event the legislature did not accept the majority report, an all-party select special committee or other legislative committee be struck to implement a 91-seat map.

That committee, Miller recommends, would restore the two rural ridings eliminated by the majority report in addition to establishing the new urban ridings proposed.

“The rest of the province as we propose must be maintained to the extent possible,” wrote Miller.

Other members of the commission have contested the Smith government’s characterization that their report should be replaced on the grounds of the 91-seat suggestion.

“We reiterate our position that the three members of the majority recommends the adoption of the majority report of 89 seats in its totality,” wrote former MLA and electoral boundaries commission member Greg Clark on X.

Smith contends that Clark held a different position while working on the commission.

“When he was in the middle of the commission, multiple times, he said, ‘If only we had the opportunity to go up to a higher number of seats.’”

Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi has described the move as an attempt to rig next year’s general elections.

“In Canada, we don’t let politicians draw maps for their own gain. That’s why we have independent boundary commissions,” he said. “Now the UCP doesn’t like the results and they are throwing the report – which took a year and cost over a million dollars – in the garbage.”

Nenshi contests Smith’s argument that it enables more effective representation.

“Medicine Hat voters already have to share their ridings with people more than 150 kms away, and the UCP wants to do that to all people in cities. It dilutes the votes of urban Albertans, and it insults rural Albertans by assuming they will always vote UCP.”