Alberta Redistricting

[Resolute 14]

Got a flyer today promoting the public consultation upcoming for redrawing Alberta's political boundaries. Specifically, the increase from 83 seats to 87. Based on the numbers they provided, it is possible that all four new seats end up in metro Calgary.

Given a provincial population of 3,290,350 (2006 census), they want the seats to all be within 25% of a provincial average population of 37,820 per riding.

At present, these are the ridings that fall out side of that +/-25% range:

Dunvegan-Central Peace     23,649 -37.5%
Lesser Slave Lake          26,943 -28.8%
Calgary-Lougheed           47,456 +25.5%
Calgary-Hays               47,599 +25.9%
Calgary-Foothills          48,056 +27.1%
Calgary-MacKay             50,307 +33.0%
Calgary-McCall             51,524 +36.2%
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo 52,658 +39.2%
Airdrie-Chestermere        53,646 +41.8%
Calgary-West               55,571 +46.9%
Edmonton-Whitemud          56,596 +49.6%
Calgary-Northwest          60,511 +60.0%

Dunvegan is a special district, and likely wont be changed all that much. They could shift the borders for Wood Buffalo and Lesser Slave Lake to balance those ridings. Airdrie probably forms a riding itself, pushing the rural population into other ridings.

When you get right down to it, two of the new seats will almost certainly be in NW Calgary and another in SE Calgary. The fourth could go to NE Calgary, or it could go to SW Edmonton, which is the only other place in the province with a cluster of overpopulated ridings.

Now, the fun part, and where we get into conspiracy territory - Do they do this by the numbers? Or does Farmer Ed and the anti-Calgary brigade rig things so that the growth of Calgary's power is severely blunted? I can't see any way, short of gerrymandering, that all four ridings aren't placed in the two major cities, and no less than three here.

[sclitheroe]

gerrymanderer noun
ORIGIN early 19th cent.: from the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts + salamander , from the supposed similarity between a salamander and the shape of a new voting district on a map drawn when he was in office (1812), the creation of which was felt to favor his party: the map (with claws, wings, and fangs added), was published in the Boston Weekly Messenger, with the title The Gerry-Mander.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Well, it's encouraging to hear that the seats should go to municipalities. We're underrepresented as it is.

[SebC]

It's completely ridiculous that they're not going way further. +/-25% shouldn't be acceptable, especially when the pluses are all urban and the minus are all rural.

[Fire]

They should make it more fair by removing seats, not adding seats. The last thing we need is more politicians.

[killer_carlson]

well I know two of the people on this commission VERY well.

There will be no bs in the outcome. Everyone will get to say their piece and whatever comes down will be fair.

[Resolute 14]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Draft+v...002/story.html

Draft plan sees two new seats for Calgary, one for Edmonton and one for rural Alberta (for some reason), and surprise, surprise, Liberal and WRA held ridings get massively overhauled.

Calgary continues to get screwed for representation.

As expected, accusations of gerrymandering are flying.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

But even with the changes, Calgary's constituencies would still have larger populations, on average, than those in Edmonton and rural Alberta, with six city ridings roughly 10 per cent or more above the provincial average of 40,880 people per electoral district.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Draft+v...#ixzz0gfBbREeS

Yep--as usual, Calgary gets screwed. Not to mention the Liberals, but more importantly, Calgary--which could well be the site of the overthrow of the tories by the WRA--continues to be significantly underrepresented.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Draft+v...002/story.html

Draft plan sees two new seats for Calgary, one for Edmonton and one for rural Alberta (for some reason), and surprise, surprise, Liberal and WRA held ridings get massively overhauled.

Calgary continues to get screwed for representation.

As expected, accusations of gerrymandering are flying.

As they should.

I live in a rural area and I have no problem with rural seats being taken away.

We need proper representation.

[Resolute 14]

Indeed. 2.3 million people in Calgary and Edmonton are represented with 44 seats in the new system while 1.0 million people in rural ridings are represented with 43 seats.

Adding a new seat to Fort McMurray makes no sense when Wood-Buffalo and Slave Lake are adjacent ridings. They could just redo the borders to resolve most of that problem.

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Indeed. 2.3 million people in Calgary and Edmonton are represented with 44 seats in the new system while 1.0 million people in rural ridings are represented with 43 seats.

Adding a new seat to Fort McMurray makes no sense when Wood-Buffalo and Slave Lake are adjacent ridings. They could just redo the borders to resolve most of that problem.

While I agree about the Calgary/Edmonton ridings, you do realize that the areas you are talking about are very empty, right? You could move those riding boundaries 100 miles, and you wouldn't change the number of people more than 100 or so - in other words nothing would change but the line on the ground. A better idea would be to look at combining the Dunvegan/Lesser Slave Lake ridings, but from what I know those two ridings are very different places. Adding a seat to Fort Mac is the only "rural" riding addition that would make sense, unless you might consider an Airdrie riding rural, in which case that one would make just as much sense.

Too bad contraction is so hard to do, cause that would make more sense than addition.