I am generally not freaked out by an “Interim Report.” But then I read the Interim Report of the 2025–2026 Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission. Despite all the cautions that it is a proposal and an invitation to submit feedback and questions, and will lead to further public hearings in early 2026, I nevertheless finished reading “Proposed Electoral Division Areas, Boundaries and Names for Alberta”—and very nearly wept.
In my provincial voting life, I have seen 12 PC majority governments, two UCP majorities and one NDP majority. So when I see a word like “Interim” or “proposed,” I tend to read the contents as my fate. Hence the tears.
I’m not sure a Lethbridge MLA would have farmers’ or ranchers’ or First Nations’ concerns top of mind.
To further explain, allow me to split myself into a psychiatrist and a patient.
Dr. Joan: What was it in the document that upset you so?
Fred: The concept of urban–rural hybrid electoral districts.
Dr. Joan: Could you be a little more specific? Or less specific, if you prefer. At what point did you become upset?
Fred: My emotional pain peaked when I realized I might one day be voting in a riding called “Lethbridge-Waterton.”
Dr. Joan: I have to tell you that people—other than your imaginary psychiatrist—will need an explanation.
Fred: It has to do with my being brought up on a mixed farm, not far from Waterton. Waterton National Park and the Rocky Mountain east slopes were my backyard. Rural and wild. Cattle and horses. Coyotes, gophers, deer and bears.
Dr. Joan: Did you dislike the city of Lethbridge?
Fred: As a child? No, I loved it. I always wanted to go there.
Dr. Joan: Why do you think that was so?
Fred: Because at Kresge’s, I could buy hockey cards and baseball cards and have a milkshake. The city excited me.
Dr. Joan: And yet now you resist the idea of being united with Lethbridge, politically?
Fred: I’m not sure a Lethbridge MLA would have farmers’ or ranchers’ or First Nations’ concerns top of mind.
Dr. Joan: Do you have examples?
Fred: To an urban MLA, a company wanting to build an AI data centre beside my farm might sound like a heck of a deal.
Dr. Joan: Are you sure a rural MLA wouldn’t feel the same?
Fred: But if it were a rural constituency, I could marshal enough support to make a rural MLA pay attention.
Dr. Joan: Have you any other examples?
Fred: Oil companies not paying taxes to the MD. Abandoned oil and gas junk on farms and ranchland. Placement of wind turbines. If the MLA were truly concerned about those issues, the Lethbridge part of the electorate might resent the time not spent on their issues: affordable housing, traffic, homelessness.
Dr. Joan: Wouldn’t any MLA have those kinds of conflicts?
Fred: All MLAs have conflicts. But not the ones I care about.
Dr. Joan: So, you think urban–rural hybrid provincial electoral districts are for the birds?
Fred: Yes, I do. Does that make me crazy?
Dr. Joan: Not crazy, but annoying to some people.
Fred: People like oilmen, you mean? Who count on urban folks not to care very much about rural things like abandoned oil wells or not-very-well-decommissioned gas plants?
Dr. Joan: Maybe. But are you perhaps forgetting that many urban people are also concerned about the environment?
Fred: Point taken. But I guess I’m talking about when push comes to shove.
Dr. Joan: Meaning…?
Fred: When something is an urban advantage but a rural disadvantage, and I’m a rural person, I’d rather have an MLA who had a rural point of view. Isn’t that how democracy works?
Dr. Joan: Example…?
Fred: Well, in “Waterton-Lethbridge,” urbanites might very well want more access to Waterton. They might like more campgrounds outside the park. And other kinds of accommodation, even if it crapped up the beauty of the foothills—which have been the same for thousands of years.
Dr. Joan: I see. Well at least we’ve established that it’s more than just a personal phobia.
Fred: Phobia?
Dr. Joan: Well, if you’d told me that one time when you were a child your family went to Lethbridge for a shopping trip and you jaywalked and were hit by a motorcycle, that might have produced a phobia. Or if you had been beset by dreams of walking on the High Level Bridge, and a train had…
Fred: Okay, I get what you’re saying. But it’s not any of those things. I still like Lethbridge. I go there to shop and listen to the symphony and have wonderful Japanese lunches…
Dr. Joan: Well, will you look at the time…? Fred, I think we’re done here.
Fred: Thank you, Dr. Joan. It’s always so good to know I’m not crazy.
Fred Stenson’s many books include the novels Who By Fire, The Trade, Lightning and The Great Karoo.
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Read more from the archive “Know Your Boundaries” July 2024.
