The new federal electoral map is expected to become official this fall and will mean changes for Wild Rose constituents.
An independent commission, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Alberta, was created in February 2012 to set boundaries so each electoral district contains roughly the same number of people.
“I think overall the fact that in Alberta we’ll have six new seats will give us a greater representation for the province,” said Wild Rose MP Blake Richards.
He said every 10 years, the boundaries need to be reviewed and added in the last 10 years, “Alberta has grown pretty significantly.”
The changes will mean the Wild Rose constituency will be renamed to Airdrie-Banff. The new boundaries run along the northern limit of Rocky View County and the MD of Bighorn, the Trans-Canada Highway to the south, Banff National Park to the west and Highway 2 to the east.
The new riding is expected to include the municipalities of Airdrie, Crossfield, Cochrane, Morley, Canmore, Banff, the MD of Bighorn, Banff National Park, and part of Rocky View County.
“It certainly seems logical to me,” said Richards. “It’s kept Airdrie, Cochrane and Banff together, they are very historic going back over the years so it makes absolute sense to keep them together.”
He said the current Wild Rose constituency has a population of 160,000 where most ridings have 104,000.
“We needed to see some changes.”
The drafting is expected to become official in the fall of 2013 and the new map will be used in the first general election called at least seven months after that date.
To view the report, visit www.federal-redistribution.ca.
