Alberta rejects Elections Alberta’s bid to delay 2027 vote

Alberta’s justice minister has rejected a request from the province’s chief electoral officer to delay the next provincial election or keep the current electoral boundaries for it, as a contested report on new riding maps is set to be tabled in the legislature on Monday.

In a letter posted on social media Sunday, Justice Minister Mickey Amery told Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure the government has “no intention of changing” the election date, which is set in law for on or before Oct. 18, 2027, Global News and CBC News reported.

McClure had written to all Alberta MLAs on Oct. 30 in a letter shared publicly by the Opposition NDP. He asked the government to consider “several operational realities” and suggested the vote either go ahead under the current boundaries or be postponed, so his office would have enough time to run the election with proper safeguards.

McClure said a typical provincial election requires up to 18 months of preparation and that Elections Alberta has been stretched thin in recent months, including by last month’s referendum on separation.

“Alberta’s fixed election date is established by law and provides Albertans with certainty and predictability concerning the democratic process,” Amery wrote. He said the legislature will consider the full boundaries report and settle the final maps before the end of the fall sitting, which he said would leave Elections Alberta about 320 days, or roughly 11 months, to prepare.

Amery also wrote that Alberta law does not guarantee Elections Alberta “lengthy advance notice” of a general election. “Independence does not diminish the duty to administer elections in accordance with the law,” he wrote, adding that independence does not relieve the chief electoral officer of responsibility for the agency’s management and performance.

The boundaries report was prepared by an advisory panel and put before an all-party legislative committee. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said after being briefed on it that it gerrymanders ridings in two southern Alberta cities, Lethbridge and Calgary. Two members of the committee that wrote the report also said the suggested ridings draw a line between rural and urban voters. The report has not been made public, and the government has not responded to the gerrymandering claim in the coverage reviewed.

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing voting districts not to reflect geography or population patterns, but to concentrate or fragment voters to benefit a political party.

McClure cautioned that disagreements over the report could cause delays. CBC News said it asked Elections Alberta and the premier’s office for comment on Friday and had not heard back over the weekend.

In 2024, Premier Danielle Smith’s government moved the fixed election date from May to October to avoid clashes with wildfires and floods, which are more common in the spring in Alberta.

The dispute follows the province’s separation referendum and the return of the legislature, which we covered in Alberta legislature returns after referendum vote. Earlier, we reported on how the referendum count ran late and on First Nations communities that ran short of ballots.

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