EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith attempted to quell Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi's allegations on Wednesday that the UCP was attempting to gerrymander Alberta's electoral maps, saying the proposed boundaries benefit the opposition."Let's talk about being disingenuous, because if his conspiracy theory is that someone gerrymandered the advisory panel's maps to benefit the UCP, then they failed miserably," Smith said in response to Nenshi's claims regarding the electoral boundaries panel's report submitted to the Legislature on Monday."Because under the proposed maps, if the UCP were to win the popular vote by the same margins as we did in 2023, nine points in total, the NDP would gain three seats, and the UCP would gain one.".Alberta's electoral boundary maps have been a point of contention throughout the legislative process, dating back to the UCP's April decision to partially accept the initial boundaries commission's majority-recommended maps, which many considered to benefit the Alberta NDP.Instead, the UCP opted to accept an addendum from the commission's chair, former Justice Dallas Miller, who said that if the UCP could not accept the majority maps in full, it should take them and reinsert the two rural ridings that had been eliminated.An independent panel appointed by the UCP and Alberta NDP was tasked with implementing the addendum. Its report was tabled in the Legislature, restoring the recommended boundaries but also going beyond Miller's recommendation by changing the maps in districts south of Airdrie..The most contentious changes in the report are in Lethbridge, where the panel's majority replaced the city's two districts with one in the city centre and three hybrid ridings branching out across rural Alberta."I've asked her several times about Lethbridge. I've received no answer," Nenshi said."The report itself doesn't try to justify why to change Lethbridge. It simply says there are reasons to do it, including: if you live near the rodeo grounds, you're actually a rancher. This doesn't work. So, what is the actual justification for wiping the third largest city in Alberta off the map?"Smith accused Nenshi on Wednesday of attempting to instill "election denialism" among Albertans by making them doubt the province's electoral integrity."Why would we restore two rural districts? Because we don't want to deprive rural Alberta of effective representation," Smith said.The panel cited Lethbridge's role as a hub for southern Alberta as part of its justification for creating hybrid ridings around the city."Hybrid ridings already exist in Alberta," Justice Minister Mickey Amery said on Wednesday."Hybrid ridings also do something else. They bring together communities that share services, employment, infrastructure, and economic interests, regardless of whether a municipal boundary happens to run between them, and nowhere is the contradiction in the NDP's position clearer than in Lethbridge.".Nenshi had an opportunity to speak at length about the report on Wednesday when the Legislature debated the motion to approve it. He spent the time outlining the process that led to the panel's report and explaining why he believes it violates Albertans' right to vote.He said the UCP initially supported the commission's report until it discovered the maps did not benefit the party. The government then made the unprecedented move of rejecting the majority report and appointing a panel to create the maps it wanted."It's a right that is so sacred that it is protected against what the Premier seems to think is a get-out-of-jail-free card, the notwithstanding clause, and the reason for that is very, very simple: no political party should ever be able to infringe upon the very rights that hold them accountable," Nenshi said."Voters should always have the right to fire their representatives at the ballot box. That's how democracy works."The Legislature passed the motion approving the report on Wednesday by a vote of 45-36.
