Tag: Julian Martin

Five questions about the MLA committee drawing Alberta’s new electoral boundaries

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 19, 2026

1. Why is the government doing this?

The only reason for the UCP government to introduce this is that UCP MLAs didn’t like what the majority of the commissioners, including the government-appointed chairperson, recommended in the final report.

Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP caucus is dominated by rural MLAs and sweeping the ridings outside of Calgary and Edmonton is key to the UCP winning re-election in 2027. It’s very likely that UCP MLAs did not like the prospect of having to challenge each other for their party’s nominations in newly redrawn rural ridings ahead of the next election — a situation that would cause tension in any caucus. The addition of competitive urban seats in cities where the population has grown the fastest also risks slimming the UCP’s majority.

I’m willing to bet that’s the main reason why the UCP government has intervened to send the map back to the drawing board.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Alberta’s new electoral map will be a fight

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 3, 2026

Divided boundaries commission gives us a level-headed majority report and drastically different minority report

The final report of the bi-partisan Electoral Boundaries Commission usually settles where the lines are drawn on Alberta’s electoral map, but like most decisions in Alberta politics these days — an injection of polarization and partisanship threatens to tear apart a system that has worked pretty well for the past thirty years.

Alberta is getting a new electoral map for the next provincial election that increases the total number of ridings from 87 to 89 but what that map looks like will depend on what MLAs decide to do when the United Conservative Party government introduces the next version of the Electoral Divisions Act into the Legislature.

With duelling maps included in the final report, it’s unclear what the government’s bill will include and how active MLAs will be in redrawing the map themselves.

A fairly level-headed majority report was supported by government-appointed chair Dallas K. Miller (a retired Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta) and NDP-appointed commissioners Greg Clark (former Alberta Party MLA for Calgary-Elbow and former UCP-appointed chair of the Alberta Balancing Pool) and Susan Samson (former mayor of the Town of Sylvan Lake).

A drastically different and much more controversial minority report was supported by UCP-appointed commissioners John Evans (a Lethbridge-based lawyer) and Julian Martin (a Professor Emeritus from the University of Alberta and former federal Conservative government senior staffer).

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Airdrie-East, Airdrie-West, Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission, Alberta Electoral Map, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics Substack, Banff-Kananaskis, Barrhead-Westlock-Athabasca, Calgary-East, Calgary-Elbow, Calgary-Falconridge-Conrich, Calgary-Glenmore-Tsuut’ina, Calgary-West-Elbow Valley, Canada Election Substack, Canmore-Banff, Cardston-Taber, Carston-Siksika, Central Peace-Notley, Cochrane-Springbank, Dallas Miller, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton-Beaumont, Edmonton-Enoch, Edmonton-Glenora-Riverview, Edmonton-Riverview, Edmonton-Strathcona, Electoral Boundaries Commission Act, Gerrymandering in Alberta Politics, Greg Clark, High River-Vulcan-Siksika, John Evans, Julian Martin, Kyle Hutton, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland, Lacombe-Clearwater, Lacombe-Ponoka, Lesser Slave Lake, Lethbridge-East, Lethbridge-West, Mountain View-Kneehill, Nathan Neudorf, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, Red Deer-North, Red Deer-South, Scott Sinclair, Spruce Grove, St. Albert-Sturgeon, Susan Samson, United Conservative Party, West Yellowhead, Wetaskiwin-Ponoka-Maskwacis

Alberta Politics

Alberta is getting a new map for the next provincial election

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 11, 2025

Alberta is getting a new electoral map and the commissioners tasked with the job of redrawing the province’s political boundaries released their interim report in October.

The Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission is now collecting input about the interim map before the commissioners go back to the drawing board to sketch out their final report, which will be submitted to Speaker Ric McIver by March 28, 2026.

The new map would be used for the next provincial election if it is approved by the Legislature and if a provincial election isn’t called next spring, as some political watchers suspect could happen.

Alberta Politics

Redrawing Alberta’s electoral map

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date May 22, 2025

Voters only getting 2 more MLAs despite huge population boom

Alberta will have a new electoral map when the next provincial election is called. An Electoral Boundaries Commission has been named and will begin travelling the province next week to collect feedback from Albertans about how new riding boundaries should be drawn to reflect population changes since the last time the map was redrawn in 2017.