Final Alberta electoral boundary report splits Medicine Hat voters right the middle

By Collin Gallant on October 19, 2017.

This map from the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission shows how Medicine Hat would be split under the proposal. www.abebc.ca

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

If you live in downtown Medicine Hat, you could be voting alongside Bassano and Brooks in the next provincial election. South of Third Street SE, or the South Saskatchewan River, generally, and you could be in the redrawn riding of Cypress-Medicine Hat.

That’s the recommendation in the final report of the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission, which presented to two-riding solution for southeastern Alberta today along with its province-wide findings.

Local political observers had questioned the logic of a three-riding solution in the region in an initial report that would have seen Redcliff, Medicine Hat and Dunmore all sit in new ridings.

Commission members had sought out additional input on how to best solve the problem of declining rural population while keeping voting districts manageable.

Initial input argued against so-called blended urban and rural ridings, but second round showed support, if it meant more compact ridings.

Now, a proposed northern riding would stretch from the provincial boundary along Township 132 to Highway 41 entering the city limits, follow the river to the Maple Avenue Bridge then along First Street to Third Street and the Trans-Canada Highway. Rejoining the river, the riding’s southern boundary would stretch to

Cypress-Medicine Hat would comprise all of Cypress County and southern Medicine Hat. Forty Mile County would join a proposed riding called Taber-Warner.

An interim report in the spring suggested that the City of Medicine Hat should be a mostly distinct urban riding.

To balance population, Cypress-Medicine Hat would be divided and joined with other districts to create a northern riding of the county, Redcliff, the city community of Southridge, and Brooks and Newell County. Voters in southern Cypress County would join a huge riding stretching from Saskatchewan to Vulcan.

Currently the city limits act as the north, east and west boundaries of the Medicine Hat ridings, with addresses east of Carry Drive and those south of the Trans-Canada Highway in the mostly rural Cypress-Medicine Hat riding.