As Elections Alberta approved five more recall petitions yesterday, bringing the number of United Conservative Party (UCP) MLAs facing at least a theoretical threat of losing their jobs to 14, provincial government cabinet ministers kept repeating their dubious mantra that their party’s Recall Act was never intended to be used this way.
Perhaps we can give them this much: this isn’t the way they expected to see the legislation used – that is to say, against them, instead of against the NDP.
The latest MLAs to be added to the recall list are:
- Glenn Van Dijken, MLA for Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock, with 12,719 validated signatures required for the petition to succeed
- Jackie Lovely, Camrose, 12,391
- Nathan Neudorf, Lethbridge-East, utilities minister, 13,207
- Jason Stephan, Red Deer-South, 14,508
- Searle Turton, Spruce Grove-Stoney Plain, 15,189
They join Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, Calgary-Bow; Deputy Speaker Angela Pitt, Airdrie-East; Nolan Dyck, Grande Prairie; Advanced Education Minister Myles McDougall, Calgary-Fish Creek; Speaker Ric McIver, Calgary-Hays; Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Muhammad Yaseen, Calgary-North; Indigenous Relations Minister Rajan Sawhney, Calgary-North West; Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, Highwood; and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally, Morinville-St. Albert on the recall list.
Funny, though, isn’t it, the way the UCP’s supporters had no problem at all when the Recall Act was used to try to unseat former Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek last year because they didn’t like her policies?
As petition applicant Landon Johnston explained to CTV Calgary what he was up to in February 2024, he was upset by spending and tax increases at City Hall. In other words, he disagreed with Ms. Gondek’s policies.
Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell, never shy about backing a conservative cause, cheered him on.
“He’s actually feeling pretty good despite having a task worthy of Hercules,” Bell enthused.
In the event, Johnston was no Hercules. His petition flopped, and Gondek remained in office for the time being. But presumably the effort wasn’t a total waste of Johnston’s time. He managed to get himself elected as a Calgary city councillor in last month’s municipal election while Gondek lost that vote.
Now that Albertans fed up with Danielle Smith and the UCP – not necessarily New Democrats, by the way – are organizing recall campaigns against government MLAs, it’s an entirely different story and “egregious” has become the word of the month.
“The spirit and the intent behind recall of course was for your local residents and local constituents to be able to hold an MLA accountable if they’ve done something significantly egregious, and that doesn’t seem to be the case with what we’re seeing now,” Education Minister Demetrius Nicolaides grumbled two weeks ago about the recall petition against him, the first one given the nod by Elections Alberta.
Just yesterday, at an unrelated news conference, is was egregious all over again.
“The intent was always to have a way to deal with elected officials that had shown egregious behaviour and it was a way to deal with them outside of the regular election cycles,” said Finance Minister Nate Horner. “You can judge for yourself if you think that’s how it’s being used.”
At the same newser, Social Services Minister Jason Nixon pitched in: “When this legislation was originally made, in the last Legislature under premier Kenney, it was designed to hold individual MLAs that may have done something egregious inside their constituencies.”
Well, to be fair, 2024 was then and this is now. Everything will probably all change again when the UCP’s Take Back Alberta faction starts trying to gin up recall campaigns against the overly passive NDP Opposition, which as far as anyone can tell has had absolutely nothing to do with the grassroots recall campaigns.
Meanwhile, the UCP’s three-day annual general meeting in Edmonton starts Friday, leaving Premier Smith in a bit of a spot on this issue. I’m not suggesting she won’t be greeted by cheers and plaudits – her misuse of the Notwithstanding Clause to squelch the freedoms of others will go over just fine with the party’s “Freedom” crowd.
But, still, she’ll be in hot water with the UCP’s MAGA-adjacent base if she so much as talks about repealing recall legislation and she’ll be in hot water with her caucus if she doesn’t. My guess is that means the topic will barely come up next weekend, but it’ll be being feverishly discussed in the UCP’s back rooms in December.
Is using a privileged voter list to attack a recall organizer egregious?
Speaking of egregious, would Nally’s use of privileged information from the official Morinville-St. Albert voters list to claim that petition organizer Joshua Eberhart didn’t vote in the last provincial election count as egregious?
“Warning: This document contains privileged information from Elections Alberta, and permission from Eberhart may be required before publication,” Nally said in his statement to Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure on the recall. “According to Elections Alberta data, Joshua Eberhart does not vote in provincial elections.”
Eberhart said he did in fact vote. And even if he didn’t, under the Recall Act that would be irrelevant as long as he’s qualified to vote and lives in the riding. But that’s not the point. The point is that Nally’s action seems to many observers to be reasonable grounds for a recall, that is, egregious.
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