Why not more seats?

The Alberta Boundary Commission report was released this week. The commission justly concluded that population growth in Alberta's cities dictates they receive more seats. In the most extreme case alone, Calgary South-East, the population nearly tripled in ten years. However, as their purview is limited only to allocation of the 87 existing seats, they've been compelled to suggest that the Alberta government transfer three seats from the countryside to Calgary, Edmonton, and Airdrie. As anybody would have expected, this conclusion has turned into a political football on the opposition side of the legislature.

WRP Finance "critic" Derek Fildebrandt isn't too happy about the geographic size of what could be his riding after 2019, complaining about needing to fly from one end of the riding to the other. I'm curious how rural MLAs managed prior to the invention of the airplane, but I digress... he does have a point. Ridings shouldn't be geographically huge. However, they shouldn't be demographically huge, either.

It is an established principle that it is not democratic or fair that geography trumps actual votes in our parliamentary system - just look at the old debate at the "Rotten Burroughs" of England, or even the electoral divisions of the Province of Canada between 1841-1867. The ABC has kept itself within our traditions in their report. So long as Alberta's legislature restricts itself to 87 seats, we're all just going to have to acquiesce to the reality that seats will continue to move from rural Alberta to the major cities, just like the people do, now, and likely ten years from now, and ten years after that.

There is another way though, which would keep Fildebrandt's seat safe and snug: add more seats to the legislature. Four, like the last time, is hardly enough to reflect population growth anywhere in the province; so why not make it 13 or 14 for basically 100 seats in the legislature. People will decry the costs (of a few million dollars), but I believe it a reasonable price to pay for fairer representation.

A 100-seat legislature would reduce the average constituency size in Alberta from approximately 47,000 to a more reasonable 40,000. This alone would make almost every rural riding roughly proximate to the provincial average, rather than dramatically smaller. Additionally, 13 or 14 extra seats in the major cities would better reflect the tremendous growth experienced around Calgary and Edmonton in the past decade, and bring down their riding sizes to something close to the provincial average. In effect, this move would serve to level the voting power across the province without compromising anyone's access to representation.

Further, I do believe that there is something more than vote-equity at stake here. Our parliamentary system was crafted with ridings of a few thousand people in mind. In the past, our representatives knew their voters, and their voters knew them. Their issues were known to each other, and their voices were strong. Ridings of 40,000, 50,000 or 100,000 are too diverse in population and economy, and too large, to really be united and aware of their common issues and identity; rather, they are splintered, and their voters disconnected and discouraged from the process and one another. I really think it's no surprise the provinces with the smallest ridings have the highest voter turnout - it's much easier to see how your vote, and your voice, matters, when it isn't drowning in an ocean.

Taking away and redistributing seats is harsh, and only necessary if we continue to limit the number of our representatives. Far better to increase the number to better reflect all realities on the ground - from populations, to professions, to resources.

Two years ago: The Death of the PCAA from Groundlevel

I was working in a polling station in the riding of Calgary Elbow. Gordon Dirks was the incumbent, and Greg Clark was certainly on the verge of unseating him. Perhaps that's why the PCs had so many volunteer scrutinizers at the station that day - I feel about six or so would be right.

The first sign something was up was when a young scrutineer, younger than me, walked swiftly out of the polling station, crying. Her emotion was plain, seen from across the room. As she left and cried past me, I saw on her phone an email with PCAA marks all over it. One doesn't get any news of the world in these stations, but I took that woman as a sign something was happening outside.

The older scrutineers stayed strong until the end. Maybe they didn't have smartphones. Regardless, when it came time for the ballots to be counted, my partner and I, being new, separated all the ballots into separate piles and decided to make our count of the votes by size, by smallest to largest, with Greg Clark's pile looking conspicuously bigger than the rest.

Being slow, my partner and I, soon the scrutineers had all assembled around our table. They were relieved that Larry Heather got no votes; they gave sighs of relief as the Liberal and NDP candidates were swiftly counted. There were even little cheers.

Then we made it to the second biggest pile: Gordon Dirks of the PCAA. We counted the ballots in sets of 50; every time we got through another set the PC volunteers cheered. Just counting one put them ahead of every other party. By the time we had finished with the PC ballots, the volunteers seemed totally sure that at least here, in our little corner of Calgary-Elbow, the incumbent had won.

There remained the biggest pile to count, however. Again, we counted the votes in batches of 50 - and every time we did so - I will never forget this one older woman asking us, "and that's all, right?" No, not hardly; as she could plainly see, there were still hundreds of other votes to be tallied. We kept counting, and the worry on their faces grew, and every time, they wanted to believe that we had finished counting, only to be disappointed, again.

Ultimately, and to the surprise solely of the PC volunteers crowding around us, Greg Clark won our polling booth. The volunteers departed, disappointed, as my partner and I filed the paperwork.

Finally, we had our chance to walk outside, to news of an NDP majority.