Smith defends Alberta riding map as NDP alleges gerrymandering

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is defending a proposal to redraw the province's electoral boundaries, which the Opposition NDP says is cheating. The boundaries are the lines that divide Alberta into ridings, the districts that each elect one member to the legislature.

Under the proposal, the city of Lethbridge would move from two ridings to four. One would be a strictly urban riding. The other three would be hybrid ridings, which link city neighbourhoods to adjacent rural areas. Smith said she currently represents the hybrid riding of Brooks-Medicine Hat.

The NDP says the changes, including additional hybrid ridings on the west side of Calgary, are designed to give the United Conservative Party an unfair advantage heading into the 2027 election. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has promised to take the new ridings to court if the legislature approves them. Smith said her government would assemble a legal team if necessary to defend the changes.

The redraw has already taken a contested path. Smith's government voted down the majority position of the public boundaries commission in the legislature and restarted the process with a new advisory panel. The panel's report restores rural ridings that a previous commission had removed from the map. That report is now before the legislature, and the Select Special Committee on Electoral Boundaries met on October 28 to review it.

The review was mandated to increase the number of seats in the legislature from 87 to 89. The NDP has accused Smith of "Trump-style" gerrymandering over the new map, according to CBC News.