Alberta election boundary commission chides MP for email campaign

At the end of July, the commission charged with redrawing the federal electoral map for Alberta released its final report.

Some proposed changes were confirmed; others walked back.

But the document also contained a section scolding an unnamed MP for appearing to organize an email campaign after public hearings to try to influence the commission.

"This influx appeared to be the result of a calculated effort, led by a particular MP, to persuade the commission to maintain the existing electoral boundaries, thereby ensuring that the MP would maintain their stronghold," the section reads. 

"This raised the concern that an attempt was being made to interfere with the integrity of the redistribution process."

Through an access to information request, CBC News analyzed more than 200 emailed submissions sent after the last hearing on Sept. 26, 2022, to identify the "voluminous influx of emailed submissions" cited by the commission.

Of those, 161 emails were related to the Lethbridge riding, represented by Conservative MP Rachael Thomas. More than half of those were sent on Oct. 31.

Thomas's office did not respond to a request for comment.

John Courtney, a professor emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan who previously worked on a federal boundary commission, said MPs whose ridings are slated for change often oppose them with few exceptions.

An interim report is tabled in parliament, which gives MPs the opportunity to submit official objections to the commission. Thomas did not file one of the five received for Alberta.

None of the other 2022 provincial commission reports mention the possibility of organized opposition through submissions by an MP. Nova Scotia did receive hundreds of postcards in opposition through a community-based campaign.

"Having written about redistributions, I can safely say that organized public pressure on a commission has in the past been rare, at least with any sizeable number," Courtney wrote in an email, adding that he could not determine whether it had become more common.

Courtney himself was subjected to opposition through hundreds of emails, letters and postcards as well as robocalls in 2012 during the federal redistribution for Saskatchewan.

That this was conducted through email is a reflection of changing methods of communication, he said.