That didn’t take long.
In a snippy letter posted to social media yesterday afternoon, Justice Minister Mickey Amery blew off Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure’s suggestion of a graceful exit from the legal and administrative problems likely to flow from the United Conservative Party’s scheme to gerrymander the results of the next provincial election.
Mr. Amery picked the less likely exit ramp of the two suggested in Mr. McClure’s Oct. 30 letter to all members of the Legislative Assembly to focus on first. “Alberta’s government has no intention of changing the date of the next provincial general election,” he stated, predictably enough.
“Alberta’s fixed election date is established by law and provides Albertans with certainty and predictability concerning the democratic process,” Mr. Amery piously added. (Unless, of course, the government decides to change the date for its own convenience, as it has already done once before.)
Albertans are entitled to expect that their provincial election will be conducted freely, fairly and on schedule,” the justice minister continued, which is not exactly what a lot of Albertans in fact expect. “Elections Alberta is entrusted with ensuring that those expectations are met.”
In other words: Drop dead!
Moving on to the possibility of legal proceedings to deal with the constitutionality of the UCP’s scheme to gerrymander ridings in Lethbridge and south Calgary to cheat the Opposition NDP out of a potential election victory, plans for which are expected to be made public by the government later today, Mr. Amery said: “We see no value in considering hypothetical judicial outcomes at this time.”
He went on to lecture Mr. McClure patronizingly about provincial elections law, with which the chief electoral officer is most certainly familiar, and remind him of the agency’s (inadequate) budget.
“While Elections Alberta operates independently of government, that independence carries significant responsibilities and corresponding expectations of accountability,” Mr. Amery huffed. (Translation: Don’t you go getting too independent!) “Independence does not diminish the duty to administer elections in accordance with the law, nor does it relieve the Chief Electoral Officer of responsibility for the effective management and performance of the organization entrusted to his leadership.”
Therefore, Mr. Amery concluded, as was predicted in this space, “Elections Alberta must undertake preparations necessary to administer the October 18, 2027, provincial general election under the final electoral boundaries enacted by the Legislative Assembly.”
That is, presumably, the gerrymandered version of the provincial electoral map that the government is determined to pass and that is likely to be challenged in court.
No doubt someone in the Premier’s Office is asking right now, Who will rid us of this turbulent chief electoral officer?
Mr. Amery’s letter appeared to have been composed in haste. At least, that is, unless Alberta’s capital city has been renamed Eddmonton in the past 48 hours or so.
It will be interesting to see if Amery’s riding of Calgary-Cross is gerrymandered to include rural portions of Rockyview County. Amery narrowly won the riding in the 2023 election by a margin of 3 per cent.