Section 15 (1) of the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act states that the population of a proposed electoral division must not be more than 25% above and not more than 25% below the average population of all the proposed electoral divisions. Recent commissions have done a fairly good job usually not straying too far from the provincial average in most ridings but this rule does provide flexibility to draw maps that reflect effective representation and communities of interest.
The O’Ferrall map gives ridings outside of Calgary and Edmonton a population average about 6.73% lower than the provincial average, while ridings in Calgary will be 5.6% above and in Edmonton 6.0% above the average.
This raises concerns about effective representation, especially in a number of proposed ridings that will be quite close to 25% below the average when they are created for the 2027 election — and could easily drop even closer or below the 25% mark far before the map is redrawn again in 2035. A few ridings that caught my attention for being considerably below the provincial average are the new Lethbridge-Cardston riding at 22% below, Drumheller-Stettler and Peace River at 19% below, Drayton Valley-Devon at 18% below, and Blackfalds-Innisfail at 17% below.
