Good afternoon everyone.

This week Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government officially started the process to redraw the province’s electoral map.

Or should we say, restarted the process.

For more than 50 years Alberta has determined its electoral boundaries based on recommendations of an independent commission jointly appointed by the government and the opposition. The process, which happens every eight to 10 years, is meant to limit political influence and find compromise.

But this year, the United Conservative Party government decided to go a different way, prompting accusations of gerrymandering, which is when political parties manipulate electoral maps to their own advantage.

After three members, representing a majority on the commission panel, presented a map that eliminated two rural seats from the 89-seat map they were required to deliver, the government said no thanks.

And while the Smith government didn’t endorse a second map, introduced by two UCP-selected members of the commission, that would have diluted the power of the urban vote, they did decide to start fresh.

On Tuesday, the government voted to pass a motion to select a committee of five MLAs – three from the UCP and three from the NDP – who will oversee the new map-making process. That group will create an independent panel, which will then pitch a redrawn electoral map.

Instead of 89 ridings, the new map will divide the province into 91 electoral districts. The government has said it is following the recommendation of the original boundary commission chair, Dallas Miller, a judge and UCP appointee.

The problem with dumping the original process is that, as The Globe editorial board wrote this week: “Even without malign intent, the result is harmful.”

Although the changes don’t provide an obvious benefit to the government, the board argued, they still raise doubts about the sanctity of elections.

The government could have gone back to the original boundary commission members and asked them to start over with 91 seats. But now, “whatever map it draws will invariably be tainted by accusations of interference.”

Former Alberta premier Rachel Notley made a similar argument in an opinion piece published in The Globe this week, although she went a step further, calling the UCP’s decisions “unprecedented and undemocratic.”

“If we allow politicians to rig elections, then we will be giving them carte blanche to do anything they want,” she wrote.

Elections Alberta now won’t get a map until this fall, significantly compressing its timeline to prepare for the October, 2027, provincial vote.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.