Lobbyist, former Conservative MP to help draw Alberta electoral boundaries

EDMONTON — Alberta’s contentious debate over redrawing its election boundaries took another fractious turn Tuesday.

Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives picked lobbyist and former Conservative MP Monte Solberg to help redraw the voting lines ahead of the 2027 general election.

Solberg was one of four appointees — two nominated by Smith and two nominated by the Opposition NDP — named to a new panel that will take charge of the redraw and report back to a committee of MLAs.

Opposition NDP member Kathleen Ganley said Solberg’s appointment is a conflict of interest. She said Solberg now has an incentive to push for riding changes sought by the United Conservatives in order to curry favour with them on behalf of his lobbyist clients.

“What that creates is incentives in the wrong place — incentives to essentially engage in favour trading,” Ganley told the committee.

The other UCP appointment on the panel is Darwin Durnie. Durnie co-authored a submission for a previous riding redraw commission that the NDP says deliberately distorts Calgary ridings to dilute NDP support.

Ganley said Durnie’s proposed maps are “clearly American-style gerrymandering.”

“They would take small slices of the city and then project them outwards towards rural areas, stretching all the way to the Rocky Mountains in some cases,” she told the committee.

Solberg and Durnie could not be immediately reached for comment.

Shanna Schulhauser, spokesperson for the UCP caucus, said in a statement Tuesday evening that Albertans can trust the process will be handled fairly, and that Solberg and Durnie are respected Albertans.

“They were chosen for this independent advisory panel because they have the judgment, credibility and professionalism needed for an important process like this,” she wrote.

The NDP’s appointees on the panel are University of Alberta law professor Gerard Kennedy and former Okotoks town councillor Brent Robinson. UCP members of the oversight committee did not voice objections.

Former provincial justice Brian O’Ferrall was tapped last week to chair the panel. That decision also raised concerns for the NDP because O’Ferrall has in the past donated to the UCP.

This is the second time in recent months that the government has tried to redraw the electoral boundaries, something it is mandated to do from time to time to reflect population changes.

The first attempt saw an independent public commission’s report largely be set aside after Smith agreed with its chair that rural seats could be protected if more seats in the legislature were added.

The commission’s majority had proposed additional seats in Edmonton and Calgary while also removing rural seats to match population shifts.

The NDP has said Smith’s rural representation argument is a decoy.

They say Smith’s government, in a desperate bid to keep its electoral advantage, is determined to redraw the voting districts not along traditional geographic lines but instead on voting patterns to ensure maximum benefit to itself.

UCP support is traditionally strongest in rural areas while the NDP’s strength comes from the cities.

NDP committee member Christina Gray told reporters that if the new maps ultimately dilute urban votes with rural ones, Albertans will not have the power to change their government even if they wanted to.

“It should be the people who decide elections,” she said.

When it came time for the committee to lay out the panel’s marching orders Tuesday, it was one frustration after another for the NDP.

Ganley and Gray tried but failed to require the panel to provide regular public reports to the committee about its work.

UCP committee members used their majority to shut down the NDP’s efforts, including a motion that would have required the panel’s members to disclose any attempts to contact them about their work by elected officials or their staff.

Brandon Lunty, UCP chair of the legislature committee, declined a request to speak with reporters, as did UCP member Ron Wiebe as he exited the meeting room.

Schulhauser said the UCP voted down additional reporting requirements because they thought it would create unnecessary red tape and distract from the panel’s work.

“It’s also insulting to the professionalism of all panel members,” she wrote.

She added that the NDP is trying to pre-emptively cast doubt on the process, dismissing it as “baseless fearmongering,” echoing an argument made by UCP member Garth Rowswell.

Gray, during the meeting, said she’s not questioning the panel’s integrity.

“We’re worried about bad actors. The bad actors are the UCP caucus staff and others,” she said.

Ganley later told reporters it appears the UCP’s goal is to operate in secret as much as possible.

“The public will hear crickets,” she said.

The panel’s report is due back to the committee on Oct. 22, and the committee must submit its report to the legislature by Nov. 2.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2026.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press