New ridings to protect rural areas: Stelmach

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach admits his government decided to add more ridings to the electoral map to maintain the number of rural ridings in the province.

"If we had not increased the number of seats, we would have lost three [ridings] just in the horseshoe from Lloydminster coming around to Rocky Mountain House, three rural ridings," Stelmach said at the spring convention of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties.

The new ridings means Albertans will be represented by 87 MLAs after the next election, rather than the 83 at present.

"It's a decision based on what's good for Alberta and this finds the balance between urban and rural," Stelmach said later to reporters. "As I said, you would have had huge, huge rural ridings that, like I said, [are] greater than the whole province of Prince Edward Island."

Stelmach's critics suggested that adding MLAs for rural areas where populations are dropping is undemocratic.

"The redress has to be towards urban representation just because of the population shift," said David Swann, leader of the Alberta Liberal Party. "He obviously does not stand for representation by population."

Swann also called the comments to rural politicians "a very stark admission that this was a political decision."

The decision to add MLAs is a waste of money and an example of the thinking that convinced her to leave the Conservative party, said Heather Forsyth, MLA for the Wildrose Alliance Party.

"To have the salaries of four ridings to put into the constituency offices, it's a huge cost to Albertans and ultimately taxpayers," she said.