Skip to content

Rural riding protected: Stelmach

EDMONTON — Premier Ed Stelmach says he made sure the number of rural seats was unchanged when electoral boundaries were redrawn last month even though most Albertans live in cities.

EDMONTON — Premier Ed Stelmach says he made sure the number of rural seats was unchanged when electoral boundaries were redrawn last month even though most Albertans live in cities.

The Opposition Liberals immediately pounced on the premier’s remark, which he made to an Edmonton meeting of rural municipalities.

Liberal Leader David Swann says Stelmach is fuelling rural-urban rivalries by refusing to acknowledge that a significant majority of Albertans live in cities.

“It’s a very clear admission that this is political decision,” Swann said Wednesday. “This is about rural-urban, but it’s about fair representation and he’s basically defying that.”

But the premier later told reporters that he felt it was important to maintain the same number of rural ridings.

“It’s a decision based on what’s good for Alberta,” said Stelmach. “This finds the balance between urban and rural.”

In a report last month, Alberta’s electoral boundaries commission recommended the creation of four new urban ridings, but no change to the number of rural constituencies.

The commission has recommended adding two new ridings in Calgary, one in Edmonton and one in Fort McMurray, raising the number of seats in the province to 87 from the current 83.