Alberta’s elections agency says a government decision to take a second run at redrawing provincial ridings will be a challenge as the clock ticks toward an October 2027 vote.
A spokesperson for Elections Alberta, Robyn Bell, said in an email that the agency needs at least 1 1/2 years, if not two, to recalibrate its systems and election plans for the new ridings.
But Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives have thrown a wrench into that plan
Smith told the house this week that they will soon introduce a motion to revisit recently proposed boundary changes, with a fall deadline to get the work done.
The new review will be overseen by a UCP-majority committee of MLAs and would leave Elections Alberta with about one year before the next election if the deadline is met.
“Reducing the preparation time will most certainly impact the cost of implementation, as (is) the case with most large-scale projects,” Bell said.
She said that once it receives the riding maps, the agency needs to update its computer systems, internal election management software, and public-facing websites, while also planning for new polling stations and returning offices.
It also needs to produce new forms, maps and other documentation, and then educate the public on everything that’s changed, Bell said.
Controversy over constituency boundaries
Alberta’s electoral boundaries have become a source of controversy as recent recommendations on new ridings from a bipartisan commission split along party lines and put forward profoundly different proposals.
The UCP-appointees on that commission formed a minority opinion. They protested the majority’s proposal to dissolve two rural ridings and add seats in Edmonton and Calgary to match the province’s shifting population.
The minority proposed creating more than a dozen rural-urban hybrid ridings that the majority believes would favour the rural-dominant UCP come election time.
The majority group, formed by commission chair and judge Dallas Miller, along with two NDP appointees, called the minority’s proposal indefensible and a clear attempt at gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is the practice of redrawing voting boundaries to favour one political party.
Miller, in his separate recommendation, urged the government not to proceed with the minority’s maps. If the province couldn’t accept the majority’s opinion, Miller suggested increasing the number of legislative seats by four rather than two to preserve rural representation.
Smith says that’s what the government is doing, and denies accusations from the Opposition NDP that she’s just taking a roundabout way of designing riding maps to rig the 2027 election in the UCP’s favour.
NDP slams UCP move as gerrymandering
NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir said in a statement Friday that the concerns raised by Elections Alberta show Smith’s government is willing to risk the integrity of the province’s elections to stay in power.
“Of course the UCP government didn’t consider the time and resources it would take to implement their rigged boundaries map,” Sabir said.
“Election integrity matters, but not for the UCP. This is who they are.”
A spokesperson for the UCP caucus, as well as press secretaries for Smith and her justice minister, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new redrawing of the government is initiating a second bipartisan panel with the same membership structure to develop new maps using the same information and public hearing feedback collected by the first commission. This panel will report to the committee of MLAs.
Smith was scheduled to speak at an unrelated press conference later Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 17, 2026.