A woman walks out of a voting station during Election Day in Calgary, Alberta, on May 29, 2023.TODD KOROL/Reuters
Rachel Notley is the former premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019.
In 2016, I appointed three of the five people on the Electoral Boundaries Commission. A year later, their final report hit my desk.
I was disappointed. Very disappointed.
Two strong NDP seats, held by my finance minister and my attorney-general, were made into one.
The urban Medicine Hat seat occupied by the then-NDP speaker of the House was cut in half and merged with larger rural areas. The seat occupied by my energy minister, once held by my father, was effectively eliminated.
In short, the proposal was not one anyone could suggest had the best interests of the Alberta NDP in mind.
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Nonetheless, I can say, with utter certainty, that at no time did I even casually consider abusing my power as Premier or our legislative majority to reverse the work of the boundaries commission. We fully understood that an independent boundaries commission was as integral to our democracy as the election itself.
Our actions were not unique or special. Previous governments, many led by conservatives, acted in exactly the same way.
That all changed last week when the UCP proposed a plan for Trump-style gerrymandering. They rejected the independent boundaries commission report, silencing the voices of the thousands of Albertans who participated in a fair, transparent and democratic process. Instead, an advisory panel will propose a new electoral map for Alberta, overseen by a committee of politicians dominated by UCP members. They will not be required to consult with the public. It seems likely that the final say on the map will rest with the politicians.
For those familiar with the foundational components of democratic systems, these actions are very disturbing.
Until recently, the work of the electoral boundaries commission was proceeding normally: the commission met with Albertans and put forward an interim report last fall that was unanimous. Then, in late March, when the final report was presented, things had changed. Two members of the commission, both appointed on the recommendation of the Alberta NDP and the UCP-appointed chair, issued a majority report that largely stayed true to the interim report. But two of the three UCP appointees not only produced a minority report but also presented an entirely different map.
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The production of a second map by the minority is unprecedented. It is rife with illogical, unrepresentative and likely unconstitutional boundary determinations. It is likely the most obvious and extreme example of gerrymandering in Canada’s modern political history. The question now is whether the newly created UCP- dominated committee will overrule the original independent commission and impose a UCP-friendly map.
Given their unprecedented and undemocratic decisions so far, the odds are good that the gerrymandered map will be the final map.
The UCP is cheating to secure themselves a supermajority. And though I was an Alberta NDP premier and remain an Alberta NDP member, my concern with a UCP supermajority is more than partisan. A government that has no electoral accountability can hardly be called a democracy.
It may be difficult to care about democracy and electoral fairness when there are more immediate issues to address. The UCP has given us a cost-of-living crisis, crumbling hospitals, overflowing ERs, and arguably the worst-funded public education systems in Canada.
They are scared of a fair fight.
In 2017, then-NDP attorney-general Kathleen Ganley introduced legislation that eliminated her riding and forced her to run in a riding held by the Opposition.
She did so because she knew the principles of democracy are bigger than any one government in any one term. She also was part of a government that collectively possessed the strength of character to play by the rules.
Since leaving office, I have witnessed attack after attack on democracy. Four times last fall, the UCP stripped constitutional rights from Albertans. They have interfered with the administration of justice. They have removed the very people investigating their own actions, such as forcing Auditor-General Doug Wiley to leave his position before completing his investigation into alleged corruption in health care procurement.
They have tried to hold themselves above the law, such as when Justice Minister Mickey Amery made himself immune from sanction by the law society or brought in changes to Elections Alberta investigations while his friend and relative was under investigation. These flagrant affronts to democracy, accountability and ethics have been difficult to watch.
It has to stop here. If we allow politicians to rig elections, then we will be giving them carte blanche to do anything they want. No politician should ever hold that power. And anyone who wants it is unfit to govern in a province or country as great and as (still) democratic as ours.