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The leader of Alberta’s Opposition NDP says Premier Danielle Smith’s governing United Conservatives are cooking the riding boundaries for their own advantage ahead of next year’s election.
Naheed Nenshi says a report now before an all-party committee gerrymanders ridings in Lethbridge and Calgary to dilute NDP support in favour of the UCP in multiple constituencies.
The report has not been made public, and it’s expected to be tabled in the legislature next week.
The NDP committee members say the city of Lethbridge, which is currently two urban ridings, will now become four ridings that take in elements of the surrounding rural areas, and they say the same is happening in northwest Calgary.
“This is Trump-style, MAGA-style gerrymandering,” Nenshi told reporters during a news conference Wednesday. “We’ve never seen it in Canada before. And one of the reasons we haven’t seen it in Canada is because it’s probably unconstitutional.”
Gerrymandering is a familiar tactic in the United States that sees voting districts designed not to reflect geography or population patterns but instead to concentrate or fragment voters to benefit one particular political party.
Recent Alberta elections have seen the United Conservatives dominate in rural areas and smaller cities while the NDP have controlled Edmonton, and the two sides have battled for advantage in Calgary.
The UCP hold a majority of votes on the committee overseeing the proposed riding redraw.
Committee chair Brandon Lunty — a UCP backbencher — declined to speak about the contents of the report, because it hasn’t yet been tabled in the legislature.
“Standing orders do allow for MLAs to discuss with other MLAs. [The NDP], frankly, have abused that privilege to discuss this publicly,” he told reporters at the Alberta legislature.
“I’m going to wait and make sure Albertans get a chance to see the report. I’m confident that the independent advisory panel report is independent, and I look forward discussing it with my colleagues on Nov. 2.”
Nenshi said his caucus plans to take action if the UCP majority in the legislature accepts and passes the recommendations in the report.
“We will absolutely take it to court,” Nenshi said. “The Supreme Court, and various courts across Canada, have been really clear that U.S.-style gerrymandering is not constitutional in Canada.”
Boundaries commission report rejected
The report from the independent advisory panel comes months after the UCP declined to accept recommendations from the electoral boundaries commission.
The commission, whose members were appointed by the governing and opposition parties, holds public hearings and accepts submissions on redrawing Alberta’s electoral boundaries. Its mandate for the boundaries report was to increase the number of seats in the house from 87 to 89.
But the government decided to start over, using an independent advisory panel to examine an assembly with 91 seats. This was based on a recommendation from Dallas Miller, the judge who chaired the commission. The panel did not hold additional public meetings, or solicit more feedback.
Miller’s recommendation was conditional on the legislature not accepting the majority report. The commission’s other majority members didn’t support it.
Nenshi accused the government of ignoring Miller’s accompanying condition, that the recommendation be adopted only if the legislature rejected the wishes of the majority.
The legislature never voted on the majority report.
The two UCP-appointed commissioners, in the minority report, made recommendations and submitted maps that Miller said would cause constitutional and administrative law problems.