Final electoral boundary report adds more hybrid ridings
The Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission has released its final recommendations, incorporating feedback from a series of hearings. The new configuration would cut one seat from Edmonton's core and add two urban-rural ridings — one combining parts of southeast Edmonton with the city of Beaumont, and the other combining west Edmonton, Enoch Cree Nation, and other rural areas. The interim report had only one riding that crossed Edmonton's municipal boundary, and envisioned Beaumont split along 50 Street into two ridings. With Beaumont joining south Edmonton, there is now a Leduc-Devon riding. The commission acknowledged strong ties between Leduc and Beaumont but said a combined district would have been the most populous constituency in the province.
Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack said he fears hybrid ridings could dilute representation, adding that he was concerned about separating communities with similar interests. "There would be more logic to retain some of the smaller municipalities together — as has been the case for decades — than breaking up the capital city," Knack said. Meanwhile, Beaumont Mayor Lisa Vanderkwaak said the outcome, with Beaumont in one district instead of two, isn't exactly what her council wanted but is "still a win."
The report also includes a boundary configuration supported by a minority of the commission, along with, for the first time in the commission's history, maps of those proposed boundaries. The commission's chair, Dallas Miller, questioned the motives of the two panellists who produced the minority report, which proposes far more urban-rural hybrid ridings as well as urban ridings with much higher populations than rural ones. Miller — who was appointed by the UCP, as were the dissenting commissioners — hinted that the minority proposal amounted to gerrymandering. The final report still has to be tabled in the Legislature, and once approved, will be implemented through an amendment to Alberta's Electoral Divisions Act. Justice Minister Mickey Amery said the government is "looking at all of the options" in the report.
