Nova Scotia’s premier says the redrawing of the province’s electoral boundaries provided for a balance between minority rights and equal representation and he expects the new map will withstand any legal challenge.
   
Darrell Dexter says the process was fair and he doesn’t know how it could be illegitimate.
   
The group that represents Nova Scotia’s Acadian population says it will launch a court challenge to quash changes it says will silence the voices of French-speaking people in the legislature.
   
The Acadian Federation of Nova Scotia says the new map, which has yet to be proclaimed law, effectively abolishes the ridings of Clare, Argyle and Richmond.
   
Federation president Justin Mury says that amounts to less representation.
   
Mury says the government interfered with the work of the province’s independent Electoral Boundaries Commission by insisting it adhere to a rule that all ridings should have a population that does not vary more than 25 per cent from the overall average of about 14-thousand.