Braid: Riding boundaries report could bring political war, as fractious legislature opens

The exploding cigar of this new legislature sitting hasn’t yet been lit, but the NDP already has an opinion.

“They’re cheating. It’s illegal. We will fight for fair elections.”

The Opposition caucus is warming up for the new riding boundaries map soon to be revealed.

Rigged boundaries and ridings could tip the next election to the UCP. That’s the NDP’s deep fear, justified by events in April.

At that point, the UCP refused to accept a fair, reasonable majority report and created a whole new panel to draw fresh boundaries.

A minority boundary map — something that has never been introduced before — called for 11 “hybrid” ridings in Calgary.

The territory in these ridings would stretch from inside the city to Chestermere on the east, Airdrie on the north and Okotoks to the south.

Lethbridge, now home to an NDP member, would virtually vanish into corners of four hybrid ridings.

There were fancy justifications: rural-urban harmony, blending of economic interests, etc. etc.

But the real reason was that in Alberta, more rural territory means more conservative votes, and thus more UCP MLAs.

Now, the new report is heading for release.

A UCP-dominated committee will discuss it Wednesday morning.

Technically, nothing about the report can be divulged publicly until it goes before the whole legislature on Nov. 2.

But you never know. All MLAs on the legislature committee, including two New Democrats, now have the report under “privilege,” meaning “keep your mouth shut.”

Greg Clark, the former Alberta Party leader who was a member of the original panel, has strong views.

“There has to be a limit on politicians and political parties putting their thumb on the scale,” said Clark, who stressed that he is not involved or aware of the contents.

“And if they do anything other than add two rural seats, that’s what’s going to be happening.

“The courts might end up drawing an Alberta election map, and I don’t think anybody wants that.”

Clark sees three possible scenarios.

“The best case is that they just accept Justice Miller’s recommendations. They put in two new rural seats, call it done, and then off we go, 91 seats and life goes on,” Clark says.

(Retired Judge Dallas Miller, who chaired the earlier panel, wrote his own angry response to the hybrid riding map. That became the government’s justification for creating a whole new panel.)

But Clark doesn’t think the government will do exactly what Miller wanted.

“The next least likely scenario is they go full-bore crazy with that minority from last time. I don’t think they’ll do that, either.”

It would be ridiculous, he suggested, to connect “Nose Hill Park with North Airdrie.”

But Clark expects tinkering beyond the majority report last April.

“I think it’s most likely they’ll do some ‘hybridizing’ on the west side of Calgary.

“And do they go all the way and do Lethbridge?”

If any of that happens, he concludes, “I think the Supreme Court will weigh in, probably quite quickly, within a matter of months, knowing the election’s coming up.”

Whatever the report says, it will land in a new legislature sitting that’s already highly contentious.

NDP MLA Marlin Schmidt was scolded by Speaker Ric McIver for saying “money laundering” as questions flew over the health procurement scandal.

Apologize, McIver demanded.

Schmidt asked if he really had to apologize for saying “money laundering” (thus saying it again).

McIver looked genuinely furious. Schmidt apologized.

The NDP blasted Premier Danielle Smith for tolerating separatists in her caucus even after 75 per cent of Albertans voted for Canada.

She replied that her government is focused on a “strong Alberta within a united Canada.”

The word “sovereign” has vanished from her vocabulary, it seems.

You could feel the political ground shifting. That was only Day 1.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald