Boundary commission application amounts to gerrymandering
By Lethbridge Herald on October 8, 2025.
Editor
So, two notable local politicians have made submissions to the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission, our Lethbridge East MLA Nathan Neudorf and former Lethbridge West UCP candidate John Middleton-Hope.Â
Both submissions are similar in that they seek to have Lethbridge carved up into three or four pieces, each of which are subsequently apportioned to surrounding rural ridings.Â
The justification on offer is that Lethbridge deals with these areas, and so has some interest, be it economical or otherwise, in the surrounding hinterland.
That’s not entirely untrue. However, the commission doesn’t seem to be carving up other urban ridings into small pieces mated with surrounding rural ridings.
A more likely prospect is this: according to Elections Alberta, Mr Neudorf won his riding with 10,998 votes versus the NDP vote of 10,362, a squeaker of a difference. In Lethbridge West, the UCP lost to the NDP 12,082 to 9,525, a more comfortable margin in the most recent general election, and in the by-election that followed, a still comfortable margin of 7,238 (NDP) to 6,093 (UCP).
Given the narrow margin of victory for Mr Neudorf and the wider margin of loss for Mr Middleton-Hope, it seems more likely that the reason for lobbying the Boundary Commission for carving up Lethbridge into portions mated with UCP-heavy ridings has more to do with gerrymandering Lethbridge to dilute the collective voice of Lethbridge than with any imagined shared interest with surrounding rural ridings.
For that likely reason, both politicians are unfit to represent Lethbridge at any level, either municipal or provincial.
David Kaminski
Lethbridge
11-10
MAGA wannabes.
The UCP make it sound like the rural voters have no representation in the government.
(Though this may be true insofar as none of our interests are being represented by this rogue government).
The idelology here, as is south of the border, is to control government in perpetuity. Hardly a democratic goal. Hmmm, what to call it …?
Hear! Hear!
This gerrymandering scheme should be illegal.
this is precisely gerrymandering. a long time practice that utterly undermines democracy. no govt should be able to gerrymander. we had best stand up to this before it is a fait accompli. if this move goes through, yet another reason to x-out one’s ballot.