Making Multi-Member Districts for Alberta Provincial Elections, based on Votelab info and Alberta county map

Votelab presents various ways to have Proportional Representation in Alberta.

Here's my look at its multi-member district scheme used for STV.

MMD

CALGARY 5 districts

Calgary-North 6 seats -- Klein. Mountain View. North. Edgemont. Beddington. Foothills

Calgary Central South 5 seats -- Buffalo. Elbow. Glenmore. Peigan. Acadia.

Calgary South 5 seats -- Fish Creek. Hays. Southeast. Lougheed. Shaw.

Calgary East 5 seats -- East. Cross. Falconridge. McCall. North East.

Calgary West 5 seats -- Bow. North West. Currie. Varsity. West

CALGARY -- 26 seats

===

CENTRE 4 districts

CENTRE-SOUTH 5 seats -- Airdrie. Airdrie. Banff. Chestermere. Olds

CENTRE-NORTH 5 seats -- Innisfail. Lacombe Red Deer. Red Deer. Rimbey.

CENTRE-NORTH-EAST 5 seats-- Camrose. Drumheller. Ft. Sask. Maskwacis. Vermilion.

CENTRE-NORTH-WEST 5 seats -- Drayton. LSA. Leduc. Spruce. West Yellowhead.

CENTRE total 20

===

EDMONTON 4 districts

Edmonton-Northeast 6 seats -- Beverly. City Centre. Manning. Strathcona. Decore. Highlands.

Edmonton-Southwest 6 seats -- McClung. Riverview. Rutherford. South. Southwest. Whitemud.

Edmonton-Southeast 6 seats -- Ellerslie. Goldbar. Meadows. Millwoods. Strathcona-Sherwood Park. Sherwood Park.

Edmonton-Northwest 6 seats -- Castle Downs. Glenora. Northwest. Morinville. St. Albert. West Henday.

EDMONTON total 24 seats

===

NORTH 2 districts

North-Northeast 5 seats -- Athabasca. Bonnyville. Fort McMurray. Ft. McMurray. LSL

North-Northwest 4 seats -- Grande Prairie. Grande Prairie. Central Peace. Peace.

North total 9

===

South two districts

South-Southeast 5 seats -- Brooks. Cypress. Lethbridge. Lethbridge. Taber.

South-Southwest 3 seats -- Cardston. Highwood. Livingstone.

South total 8

===

These are the "grouped constituencies", long mentioned in PR books.

But actually using cities (or quarter-cities) and counties (in their entirety as building blocks of MMDs) is my preference.

The existing provincial districts as listed here are just arbitrary units and have no reality on the ground, sometimes dividing neighbour from neighbour, even splitting Lethbridge and Red Deer in halves, etc.

No counties (other than Strathcona county) are mentioned by name here.

the prov. districts are merely identified by name of towns or cities within the district.

But they do give you the idea of how Alberta can be divided into 17 multi-member districts of between 4 and 6 seats each.

in this case

Calgary is divided into 5 districts; Edmonton into 4 districts; Centre into 4 districts; South into two districts; North into two districts.

17 districts in all.

Any group of voters that compose 25 percent of the voters in the district will elect their own representative.

In the six-seat districts, any group of voters that compose 14 percent of the voters in the district will elect their own representative.

and there is nothing the other voters can do to prevent this.

======================================================

Here's some suggestions on other info on the Votelab website:

Terminology:

List MMP (open-list)

Multi-member electoral districts are used, typically comprising about three to five seats. Parties usually run more than one candidate per district, and voters mark a single X beside their preferred candidate. Each party is awarded seats in proportion to how much of the vote its candidates receive: a party that wins 40% of the vote would win two seats in a five-seat district. The candidates with the most votes in each party wins the party's seats.

[in both NZ and Germany voters cast two votes - one for candidate in district and one for party]

STV

Multi-member electoral districts are used, typically comprising about three to seven seats. Parties usually run more than one candidate per district, and voters mark a 1 beside their preferred candidate, and rank other candidates as back-up alternatives, to allow transfer of votes that are surplus or placed on an un-electable candidate. Transfers can cross party lines in accordance with voters' marked instructions. Results are proportional to votes' final resting places. Seats fill by quota.

===

Many STV contests use DM as large as many list PR contests.

places in Australia are now using 21 and 37 DM in STV, when many List PR places elsewhere use less than DM-10 districts (such as Finland)

I like that list PR explanation assumes districts, and explanation of MMP assumes regions not overall top-up. fits Canada well, but is not how NZ works.

I query whether list PR in districts actually produces as much as 97 percent effective votes.

 for example, three percent threshold (whether explicit or mechanical due to DM) does not just waste 3 percent of votes but wastes votes of all the parties who are less than 3 percent.

STV may secure many effective votes by allowing cross-party transfers, something not possible under list PR.

but yes with with DM being 5, about 16 percent of votes may be wasted in each district, and hence across the board.

================================================

STV proposal sent to Mr. Nenshi, and Christina Gray, November 1, 2026

Due to charges of partisan gerrymandering, the government should adopt a new fairer election system to rekindle trust in the process. A change to multi-member districts and Single Transferable Voting would end Alberta's historic pattern of disproportional election results and undemocratic regional shutouts (one-party sweeps of whole cities and parts of the province).

Under this new system, the province of Alberta would be divided into 20 districts, with between 3 and 7 members in each district but with each district having a consistent voters-to-seat ratio.

Each voter would cast one vote as under the Single Transferable Voting system. Under STV that vote would have opportunity to be transferred to another candidate in the district in accordance with the voter's marked directions, in cases where it was initially placed on an un-electable candidate or a winning candidate who received surplus votes. This may seem complicated but the method's oligorithm is time-proven in elections in Ireland and Australia for more than hundred years. And Alberta used STV to elect MLAs in Edmonton and Calgary for 30 years in the 20th Century. The fair results in each city during that time speak for themselves.

The transfer of surplus votes conducted under STV where necessary produces fairness - each winner in the district would be elected with the same or about the same number of votes.

The transfer of un-electable candidates' votes means voters could cast their vote for whom they truly support, knowing that it later could be moved to a secondary electable choice. Such a move would only be done in accordance with voter's stated instructions, as per the ranked vote.

It is unclear if the legislature will have 87, 89 or 91 seats. But the use of multi-member districts with different seat counts in a district is flexible. Once the size of the legislature is known, seats can be allocated to the 20 districts without re-drawing the district boundaries.

The new larger districts would use cities and counties or other rural units as building blocks. This would mitigate the slicing ad dicing effect voters feel today when county boundaries, provincial electoral district boundaries and federal electoral districts are different.

Gerrymandering is avoided because:

-whole counties and other rural units are used as building blocks to form the new districts. This prevents minor redrawing for partisan benefit. As well each county is a heterogeneous population and that leads to balanced composition of the voters in each of the new districts.

-with each district electing multiple members and the use of fair voting (single transferable voting), the waste of votes is kept to minimum; each member is elected with the same or about same number of votes, and where the boundary between districts lies is not critical.

Each voter would vote directly for a candidate same as under the current first past the post system.

The most-popular candidate or candidates in each district would be elected.

The most-popular candidate or candidates of each party in the district would be elected.

(more explanation below)

Description of Proposed Multi-member Districts

The new larger districts in Edmonton and Calgary

Calgary can be divided into 5 districts.

Edmonton can be divided into 4 districts.

The way these cities are divided is less important as the voters in each part of the city is fairly heterogeneous. The large seat counts in each district (an average of 5 seats) means each 17 percent of the vote in each district will get a seat, minimizing risk of wasting votes or dividing a voting block to disastrous effect.

The size of the district should not be a problem as the mayor in each city represents the entire city. If one person can represent the whole city, five members should be able to represent a quarter or fifth of the city.

======

The new larger districts in Rural Alberta

Rural Alberta will have about 42 to seats after the next election, depending if the new legislature has 87, 89 or 91 seats.

so we want about 11 multi-member rural districts.

I suggest:

North having 4 districts

Centre having 5 districts

South having 2 districts.

==================================================

Northern Alberta     4 districts (9 seats in old 87-seat Legislature)

Northern Lights

Mackenzie, Northern Lights, Northern Sunrise, Clear Hills, Smoky River, Grande Prairie.

Municipal districts of Fairview, Peace, Greenview.

Grande Prairie and other municipalities enclosed therein.

"Wood Buffalo" likely 3 seats

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (including Ft. McMurray), Town of Slave Lake, and other municipalities enclosed therein, if any.

County of Lac La Biche (and the hamlet of Lac la Biche)

Municipal districts of Opportunity, Lesser Slave Lake.

Improvement District 24

(its huge size likely prevents adding more area)

North-East

Counties of Thorhild, Smoky Lake, St. Paul, Athabasca, Woodlands.

Municipal District of Bonnyville.

Athabasca, Thorhild, Smoky Lake, St. Paul and other municipalities enclosed therein.

North-Central

Counties of Sturgeon, Strathcona (including Sherwood Park), Lamont.

Fort Saskatchewan and other municipalities enclosed therein.

======

Central Alberta         5 districts (about 20 seats in old 87-seat Legislature)

Centre-Yellowhead

Counties of Brazeau, Parkland, Yellowhead, Lac Ste. Anne, Barrhead, Westlock

Improvement District 25.

Jasper, Drayton Valley, Stony Plain, Edson, Hinton and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre-Wainwright

Counties of Camrose, Drumheller, Flagstaff, Beaver, Minburn, Vermilion River, Two Hills.

Municipal Districts of Wainwright and Provost.

Camrose, Drumheller and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre- Red Deer

Counties of Leduc; Lacombe, Ponoka, Wetaskiwin, Red Deer.

Lacombe, Ponoka, Wetaskiwin, Red Deer and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre-Shortgrass

Counties of Stettler, Paintearth, Starland.

Municipal District of Acadia.

Special Areas 2, 3, 4.

Stettler and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre-Mountainview

Counties of Rocky View, Mountain View, Bighorn, Clearwater, Wheatland, Kneehill.

Improvement District 9 (including Banff)

Didsbury, Olds, Sundre and other municipalities enclosed therein.

===========================================

South into two districts  (about 8 seats in old 87-seat Legislature)

South-West

Counties of Pincher Creek, Willow Creek, Ranchland, Foothills, Vulcan, Lethbridge, Cardston.

Kananaskis Improvement District and Improvement District 4.

Pincher Creek, Lethbridge and other municipalities enclosed therein.

South-East

Counties of Cypress County, Forty Mile, Newell, Warner.

Municipal district of Taber.

Medicine Hat, Redcliff and other municipalities enclosed therein.

==========================

Further explanation of the new electoral system

The number of seats in each district would range from 3 to 7 optimally.

Two seats would be acceptable for a far-flung rural district to avoid redistricting or excessive geographical area.

Allocating seats to districts:

Divide figure for total Alberta population by number of seats - 87, 89, 91?

Divide population figure for each district by this figure.

Allocate seats to the whole numbers , leaving aside fractions.

If some seats not yet allocated, allocate seats to districts with the most population left over (largest remainder).

With at least 75 percent of votes in each 3-seat district actually electing someone, and a higher percentage of effective votes in districts with 4, 5 or more seats, any small variation from the average population-per-seat ratio from district to district will be immaterial, as compared to present wasted votes and regionally-polarized results.

Under the new multi-member district scheme, in each district the more-popular party will take more of the district seats than its opponent, barring a tie or unusual circumstance.

Conservatives will get about a third of seats in Edmonton; NDP will get about a third of seats in rural areas. Each party will take its due share in Calgary, Edmonton and in each part of the province.

And overall each party will take its due share of seats in the legislature.

Adoption of such a scheme would be a major change but would give sitting members the assurance that as long as they receive a quarter of the votes cast in the newer larger district, or sometimes only 13 percent of the votes cast, they will be re-elected, and there would be nothing the other voters or opposing parties could do to stop their re-election.

Compare that to the situation under first past the post where, to be re-elected, the sitting member has to get more votes than each opposing candidate.

If government is reluctant to adopt ranked ballots, which is a defining element of single transferable voting (STV), the scheme of multi-member districts would work almost as well just with each voter casting a single X vote. Single Non-Transferable Voting (SNTV) would produce pretty much the same mixed, balanced representation in each district as STV, and would require no more work than under the present FPTP system. Even if ranked votes are used, there should be no requirement for a voter to rank more candidates than he or she desires to rank.

Thank you for your attention,

Tom Monto, a voter in Edmonton-Strathcona

=============================================================

older version

Due to charges of partisan gerrymandering the government should adopt a new fairer election system to rekindle trust in the process. A change to multi-member districts and Single Transferable Voting would end Alberta's historic pattern of disproportional election results and undemocratic regional shutouts (one-party sweeps of whole cities and parts of the province.

Under this new system, the province of Alberta would be divided into 20 districts, with between 3 and 7 members in each district but with each district having a consistent voters-to-seat ratio.

Each voter would cast one vote as under the Single Transferable Voting system. Under STV that vote would have opportunity to be transferred to another candidate in the district in accordance with the voter's marked directions, in cases where it was initially placed on an un-electable candidate or a winning candidate who received surplus votes. This may seem complicated but the method's oligorithm is time-proven in elections in Ireland and Australia for more than hundred years. And Alberta used STV to elect MLAs in Edmonton and Calgary for 30 years in the 20th Century. The fair results in each city during that time speak for themselves.

The transfer of surplus votes conducted under STV where necessary produces fairness - each winner in the district would be elected with the same or about the same number of votes.

The transfer of un-electable candidates' votes means voters could cast their vote for whom they truly support, knowing that it later could be moved to a secondary electable choice. Such a move would only be done in accordance with voter's stated instructions, as per the ranked vote.

It is unclear if the legislature will have 87, 89 or 91 seats. But the use of multi-member districts with different seat counts in a district is flexible. Once the size of the legislature is known, seats can be allocated to the 20 districts without re-drawing the district boundaries.

The new larger districts would use cities and counties or other rural units as building blocks. This would mitigate the slicing ad dicing effect voters feel today when county boundaries, provincial electoral district boundaries and federal electoral districts are different.

Gerrymandering is avoided because:

-whole counties and other rural units are used as building blocks to form the new districts. This prevents minor redrawing for partisan benefit. As well each county is a heterogeneous population and that leads to balanced composition of the voters in each of the new districts.

-with each district electing multiple members and the use of fair voting (single transferable voting), the waste of votes is kept to minimum; each member is elected with the same or about same number of votes, and where the boundary between districts lies is not critical.

Each voter would vote directly for a candidate same as under the current first past the post system.

The most-popular candidate or candidates in each district would be elected.

The most-popular candidate or candidates of each party in the district would be elected.

(more explanation below)

Description of Proposed Multi-member Districts

The new larger districts in Edmonton and Calgary

Calgary can be divided into 5 districts.

Edmonton can be divided into 4 districts.

The way the cities are divided is less important as the voters in each part of the city is fairly heterogeneous. The large seat counts in each district (an average of 5 seats) means each 17 percent of the vote in each district will get a seat, minimizing risk of wasting votes or dividing a voting block to disastrous effect.

The size of the district should not be a problem as the mayor in each city represents the entire city. If one person can represent the whole city, five members should be able to represent a quarter or fifth of the city.

======

The new larger districts in Rural Alberta

Rural Alberta will have about 42 to seats after the next election, depending if the new legislature has 87, 89 or 91 seats.

so we want about 11 multi-member rural districts.

I suggest:

North having 4 districts

Centre having 5 districts

South having 2 districts.

==================================================

NORTH 4 districts (9 seats in old 87-seat Legislature)

North-Northwest

Mackenzie, Northern Lights, Northern Sunrise, Clear Hills, Smoky River, Grande Prairie.

Municipal districts of Fairview, Peace, Greenview.

Grande Prairie and other municipalities enclosed therein.

"Wood Buffalo" likely 3 seats

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (including Ft. McMurray), Town of Slave Lake, and other municipalities enclosed therein, if any.

County of Lac La Biche (and the hamlet of Lac la Biche)

Municipal districts of Opportunity, Lesser Slave Lake.

Improvement District 24

(its huge size likely prevents adding more area)

North-East

Counties of Thorhild, Smoky Lake, St. Paul, Athabasca, Woodlands.

Municipal District of Bonnyville.

Athabasca, Thorhild, Smoky Lake, St. Paul and other municipalities enclosed therein.

North-Central

Counties of Sturgeon, Strathcona (including Sherwood Park), Lamont.

Fort Saskatchewan and other municipalities enclosed therein.

======

Centre 5 districts (about 20 seats in old 87-seat Legislature)

Centre-Yellowhead

Counties of Brazeau, Parkland, Yellowhead, Lac Ste. Anne, Barrhead, Westlock

Improvement District 25.

Jasper, Drayton Valley, Stony Plain, Edson, Hinton and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre-Wainwright

Counties of Camrose, Drumheller, Flagstaff, Beaver, Minburn, Vermilion River, Two Hills.

Municipal Districts of Wainwright and Provost.

Camrose, Drumheller and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre- Red Deer

Counties of Leduc; Lacombe, Ponoka, Wetaskiwin, Red Deer.

Lacombe, Ponoka, Wetaskiwin, Red Deer and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre-Shortgrass

Counties of Stettler, Paintearth, Starland.

Municipal District of Acadia.

Special Areas 2, 3, 4.

 Stettler and other municipalities enclosed therein.

Centre-Mountainview

Counties of Rocky View, Mountain View, Bighorn, Clearwater, Wheatland, Kneehill.

Improvement District 9 (including Banff)

Didsbury, Olds, Sundre and other municipalities enclosed therein.

===========================================

South into two districts  (about 8 seats in old 87-seat Legislature)

South-West

Counties of Pincher Creek, Willow Creek, Ranchland, Foothills, Vulcan, Lethbridge, Cardston.

Kananaskis Improvement District and Improvement District 4.

Pincher Creek, Lethbridge and other municipalities enclosed therein.

South-East

Counties of Cypress County, Forty Mile, Newell, Warner.

Municipal district of Taber.

Medicine Hat, Redcliff and other municipalities enclosed therein.

==========================

Further explanation of the new electoral system

The number of seats in each district would range from 3 to 7 optimally.

Two seats would be acceptable for a far-flung rural district to avoid redistricting or excessive geographical area.

Allocating seats to districts:

Divide figure for total Alberta population by number of seats - 87, 89, 91?

Divide population figure for each district by this figure.

Allocate seats to the whole numbers , leaving aside fractions.

If some seats not yet allocated, allocate seats to districts with the most population left over (largest remainder).

With at least 75 percent of votes in each 3-seat district actually electing someone, and a higher percentage of effective votes in districts with 4, 5 or more seats, any small variation from the average population-per-seat ratio from district to district will be immaterial, as compared to present wasted votes and regionally-polarized results.

Under the new multi-member district scheme, in each district the more-popular party will take more of the district seats than its opponent, barring a tie or unusual circumstance.

Conservatives will get about a third of seats in Edmonton; NDP will get about a third of seats in rural areas. Each party will take its due share in Calgary, Edmonton and in each part of the province.

And overall each party will take its due share of seats in the legislature.

Adoption of such a scheme would be a major change but would give sitting members the assurance that as long as they receive a quarter of the votes cast in the newer larger district, or sometimes only 13 percent of the votes cast, they will be re-elected, and there would be nothing the other voters or opposing parties could do to stop their re-election.

Compare that to the situation under first past the post where, to be re-elected, the sitting member has to get more votes than each opposing candidate.

If government is reluctant to adopt ranked ballots, which is a defining element of single transferable voting (STV), the scheme of multi-member districts would work almost as well just with each voter casting a single X vote. Single Non-Transferable Voting (SNTV) would produce pretty much the same mixed, balanced representation in each district as STV, and would require no more work than under the present FPTP system. Even if ranked votes are used, there should be no requirement for a voter to rank more candidates than he or she desires to rank.

Thank you for your attention,

Tom Monto, a voter in Edmonton-Strathcona

=============================================================