Under this proposed STV system, Alberta would have
a total of 87 members in 22 districts:
9 city districts (DM 2 to 10),
10 DM-3 districts (possibly one with 5 members), 3 SMDs.
City districts with District Magnitude ranging from 2 to 10
Edmonton 20 2 districts of 10 DM
Calgary 26 2 districts of 9, 1 district of 8
Lethbridge 2 city-wide district 2 seats
Red Deer 2 city-wide district 2 seats
Grand Prairie 2 city-wide district 2 seats
Ft. McMurray 2 municipality-wide 2 seats leaving out S part of old Ft. McMurray-LLB
54 members in total in 9 districts
Single-member districts
Peace River with N part of Central-Peace
Central Peace-Notley (S part) with rural part of old Grande Prairie districts
Lesser Slave Lake
3 members in 3 districts
Rural three-seat districts (five members perhaps in District C)
A Cypress-Med. Hat Brooks-Med. Hat plus part of old Taber
B Cardston Livingstone west part of old Taber
C Airdrie (2) Chestermere Highwood Banff
D S part of Rimbey Olds Innisfail
E Camrose Drumheller Vermilion
F Leduc Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin Lacombe-Ponoka
G Drayton Valley, West Yellowhead, N part of Rimbey
H Lac Ste. Anne Morinville-St. Albert Spruce Grove-Stony Plain
taking in all of Lac Ste. Anne County, Sturgeon County, Parkland County
I Strathcona and Sherwood Park (2) Ft. Sask.-Vegreville
J Athabasca Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, LLB-St. Paul, plus the LLB part of old Ft. McMurray
How many old districts in new districts (approx.)
A 2.5
B 2.5
C 5
D 2.5
E 3
F 3
G 2.5
H 3
I 3
J 3
total 30 members in 10 DM-3 districts
Discrepancy in seat numbers in a district is not important.
What is important is ratio of number of votes cast per member, usually this is predicted by having equal size of population per member.
Districts will be re-drawn where necessary so each county is within only one district.
Allowable range is plus or minus 25 percent of average (with four districts allowed to have population that is 25 to 50 percent lower than the average).
(In 2017, the average per each of the 87 districts was 46,803. (Commission report (2017), p. 10)
By 2024 Alberta population per 87 districts is now a little more than 50,000.
4.371M (2024) divided by 87 = 50,000
Allowable range:
2-seat district = 100,000 (with range of 75,000 to 125,000 allowed)
3-seat district = 150,000 (with range of 112,500 to 187,500 allowed)
5-seat district = 250,000 (with range of 187,500 to 312,500 allowed).
Obviously the new districts are larger in geographic size than the old ones that they are composed of. but each of the new distrcits is lkekly smaller than the old Olds-Didsbury or Peace River district, or Central-Peace which each had just one member.
Peace River district as drawn in 2017) is more than 109,000 sq. kms in size.
The Commission's 2027 report states
."..constituencies created elsewhere are not “impossibly large,” given their geographic size in comparison with that of Dunvegan-Central Peace-Notley and Lesser Slave Lake. They enjoy better means of transportation and communication. They are typically traversed by all-season roadways in all directions and have populations scattered throughout."
District D is a donut district around Calgary but most of its population (that is, excepting Banff district area) is within a small radius, which is smaller than the geographic limits of the one-seat Olds-Didsbury district used in the 2023 election.
Geographic size of 20,000 sq. kms is set as a potential threshold where, bearing in mind other factors, it is permitted for a district to have population of less than 50 percent of average (thus population of less than 23,402). Peace River and Lesser Slave Lake are, it seems, the allowed exceptions to the rule. Even though Peace River district and Lesser Slave Lake district are the largest in the province (far larger than 20,000 sq. kms.), they are still short of the usually-permitted 25-percent variance from the provincial average. (Alberta Commission, Proposed Electoral Divisions..., (Oct 2017, p. 8)
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