EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations that her United Conservatives are pulling the strings behind the scenes to rejig election ridings in their favour.

Smith dismissed the allegations put forward by Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi during question period.

The back and forth comes as the house is set to vote this week on revisiting a panel report on how the ridings should be redrawn ahead of the 2027 election.

Smith says they are revisiting the process after the panel report chairman suggested adding more seats would make it more fair for rural voters — but the NDP says the UCP is using that as a smokescreen.

They say the real reason Smith’s UCP wants to revisit the report is in order to accept the recommendations of the UCP-appointed members of that panel.

Those panel members called for a slew of urban-rural hybrid ridings which even other members of the panel warned skewed the map in favour of the rural-dominant UCP.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2026.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press