I don't think the purported issue with rural representation is actually that significant based on the information and data that is available in the interim report for the upcoming "gerrymandering." Alberta is increasing from 87 to 89 ridings and based on their population numbers that means the average electoral district is 54,929. They have broken up the province into regions based on EDs. Edmonton ends up with an average population per ED of 56,870 or 3.5% above the Alberta average. Adding an extra ED there would make Edmonton 1.2% under the provincial average. Calgary will be 1.4% above the provincial average but adding another ED would make it 2.1% under average. They lump another 30 EDs into a few geographical groupings and those 30 ridings are an aggregated 0.45% under average. That leaves 10 EDs in the north which are an aggregated 10% below average. Removing one of those EDs puts that northern section right at the provincial average.
Realistically, Calgary and Edmonton are pretty close to where they should be for representation and some boundaries need to be adjusted to smooth out the variance between the city EDs. The same boundary adjustment can be made in rural EDs to smooth about variations
|