It now seems certain that come the next federal election in 2015 Saskatchewan will have a dramatically redrawn electoral map. The most prominent change will be three dedicated urban ridings for Saskatoon and two urban ridings and one blended urban/rural riding for Regina. That comes after the Parliamentary committee studying objections raised by 12 Saskatchewan Conservative MPs to the proposed riding revamp declined to recommend that the three-person boundary commission consider further revisions to the map to meet MPs’ concerns.

The boundary commission wouldn’t have been bound by the Parliamentary committee’s recommendations had that happened. But with the committee’s endorsement of the map, which also included a sharp rebuke of some Saskatchewan Conservative MPs for allegations they made about bias on behalf of the two commissioners who recommended instituting urban ridings in recognition of differing communities of interest between urban and rural voters, the matter would now seem to be settled.

You can read more in this Leader-Post report.