The commission responsible for updating Canada’s federal riding boundaries have released their recommendations for redistribution in Alberta. The boundaries make some significant changes in rural areas and create fully-urban ridings in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton (following the 2003 redistribution, many of Edmonton’s ridings were expanded to include surrounding rural areas).
Below are the maps of the new boundaries transposed with the poll-by-poll results from the 2011 federal election. Looking back at the 2011 results, the new riding boundaries would have narrowed the Conservative Party’s margin of victory in a handful of ridings, including Lethbridge, Calgary-Skyview, Edmonton-Centre, and Edmonton-Greisbach (currently Edmonton-East), but would not have changed the electoral map in that election.
Also interesting to watch will be Calgary-Centre, where last year’s hotly-contested federal by-election drew national attention. Was the close race in Calgary-Centre the beginning of a new trend for that city or was it simply a mid-term anomaly?
A big thank you to Kyle Hutton for creating these maps. Check out his blog, Blunt Objects.
