@orlaghokelly.bsky.social:
The chief electoral officer needs to wake up. They should have paused the referendums if it was causing their ability to prepare for an election to be compromised.
If there is a legal challenge, they will be named to ensure court decisions are made with their input. Like just happened in Quebec.
The Quebec case was not about gerrymandering. It was about pausing boundary changes that would have cured(liked in Alberta) urban voter dilution. It went all the way to the SCC in a 1 year. And they won. The final decision was issued from bench to on April 22, and the election was this month
Elections Alberta gave Smith a get out of jail free card. And you can bet she’ll use it. Extend her own term and (try) to rig the boundaries
Case: Quebec (Attorney General) v. Lalande, canlii.ca/t/kkjs7#par1…,
@hganshorn.bsky.social:
How can they do that? It’s already extended 6 months to have a fall rather than a spring election. Don’t they have to hold an election within a certain period? I mean why have elections at all then?
@connieskp.bsky.social:
Nope, we need a spring election. If she didn’t know the rules that is her tough luck, I am getting so sick of her not knowing the rules of law!!!
She fucking knows, she has a hoard of lawyers helping her break the law, and her very fav lawyer who shat on our Charter to abuse teachers and trans kids, Herr Hideous Carney recently appointed to Court of Corrupt Kings Bench in Alberta! Smith doesn’t give a shit about the law, she, like her pal Carney, and their lawyers eagerly break it, copying Trump, to do what they and their billionaire over lords want. She is the one to suffer ,not the rest of us. for once.
@plnear.bsky.social:
Oh trust me, she knows the rules better than most. She just doesn’t follow them. She changes laws to suit her own aspirations. She has never cared about Albertans. Dragging out the election another 6-12 months is her end game. The only hope now is criminal charges. and I don’t hold out any hope on those, because Smith is racist misogynistic bigoted white trash, which our RCMP love to protect; the more corrupt, the more police protection. Just look to how the RCMP protected and enabled hideous racist bigot catholic Jason Fucking Kenney and his reported election crimesShe will never resign. Ever.
Elections Alberta urges MLAs to hold off on approving new electoral map or postpone 2027 vote by Matthew Scace, Oct 31, 2026. The Globe and Mail
Alberta’s chief electoral officer is urging members of the provincial legislature to either not approve the new electoral maps scheduled to be released Monday or delay next year’s provincial election, saying Elections Alberta doesn’t have the time or resources to implement the changes by next year’s fixed election date.
Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure, in a Friday letter sent to each of the province’s 87 MLAs, and circulated by the Alberta NDP, warned that the flurry of electoral activity in the province over the past year has severely constrained the agency’s ability to prepare for the next provincial election.
Elections Alberta typically requires 12 to 18 months to plan and prepare for a provincial election, and establishing the boundaries is only the first step in the process, he wrote.
As a consequence, Mr. McClure urged MLAs to consider one of two options: hold the Oct. 18, 2027 provincial election using the already established electoral map, or accept the new map and extend the fixed-election date “where legally authorized and necessary.”
“I urge all Members to consider the time required for implementation as deliberations concerning electoral boundaries proceed,” Mr. McClure wrote.
“A timely and definitive resolution, together with an appropriate contingency plan should additional time be required, is essential to protecting the readiness and successful delivery of Alberta’s next provincial general election.”
Alberta’s electoral boundaries are expected to be tabled in the provincial legislature on Monday and, if approved, would be used for next year’s election.
The redrawing process, mandated by Alberta law, has been clouded by allegations of gerrymandering, the U.S.-style tactic of manipulating electoral maps to create an artificial advantage, since Premier Danielle Smith in April rejected a independent commission’s proposed boundaries.
Her government then formed a UCP-dominated committee that created a new independent panel charged with taking a second attempt at drawing the electoral map. The panel consisted of two members tapped by the NDP, two by the UCP, and was chaired by retired Alberta judge Brian O’Ferrall.
It delivered that map to the committee of MLAs last week.
The report remains confidential, but on Wednesday Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi and two fellow New Democrat MLAs detailed extensive concerns about the new proposed boundaries.
Mr. Nenshi called the map “illegal,” saying Ms. Smith’s government had “engineered the single worst case of gerrymandering in Alberta history” – though he stopped short of saying whether the NDP planned to launch a legal challenge.
The Premier has said she will withhold judgment on the map until it is publicly released.
But with the prospect of a bitter political fight and potential court challenge over the boundaries, Mr. McClure wrote that compressing the timeline ahead of next year’s election would stretch Elections Alberta even further.
“While Elections Alberta takes no position on the merits of any potential legal proceedings, the prospect of a court challenge introduces additional uncertainty into an already compressed implementation schedule,” he wrote.
He continued that Elections Alberta is already the leanest electoral agency in Canada on a per-voter-served basis.
Mr. McClure has issued several warnings this year about Elections Alberta’s ability to manage the recent referendum and next year’s provincial election, in addition to the wave of citizen-initiated and recall petitions launched over the past year.
He reiterated those concerns in his letter, saying resources normally dedicated to the general election were diverted for the referendum.
“In the last 24 months we have been increasingly required to do more, with less resources,” he wrote.
Mr. McClure’s recommendations give Ms. Smith’s government the option of pushing back the next general election.
The Premier’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Smith’s United Conservative Party government was elected on May 29, 2023, giving the province the option of holding the next election in spring, 2028, at the latest.
Her government in 2024 pushed back the fixed election date from May to October to reduce the risk of elections being impacted by natural disasters, which tend to occur more often in the spring. Wildfires during the 2023 vote forced the evacuation of nearly 30,000 people as parties jostled on the campaign trail.
Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial legislatures have a maximum legal lifespan of five years.
Mr. Nenshi, in a statement, called on Ms. Smith to adopt the electoral map proposed by the previous independent panel.
“Danielle Smith and the UCP should have implemented the independent commission’s report six months ago and they could still do it now,” he wrote.
“Albertans deserve to vote in free, fair and timely elections.”
Elections Alberta did not respond to a request for comment.
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