The process for deciding where the constituency boundaries will be for federal elections has a Saskatchewan connection. Justice Georgina Jackson is the Chair of Saskatchewan’s Electoral Boundaries Commission. She looked up a bit of the history and says up until the 1960s the party in power chose the boundaries. Other than possible leanings toward favouring boundaries for that particular party, there were no challenges, unless there was a minority government, making it difficult to come to any agreements. That’s what happened in the early sixties.

In 1962, Prince Albert MP and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, John Diefenbaker won, and the next year, Lester Pearson and the Liberals won, meaning no consensus for any boundary changes. Saskatchewan’s Tommy Douglas was the federal leader of NDP at the time. The three statesmen referred the matter to a committee, which proposed the boundaries should be done by independent commissions across the country, and that’s the way it works to this day.

The ten commissions are now in the midst of completing their reports after releasing proposed boundaries earlier this year and having public engagement. The new boundaries won’t be official until the next federal election.