Just over two years into her term, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek is facing a recall petition.
The City of Calgary said it received a notice-of-recall petition against the sitting mayor on Jan. 30, and has verified it complies with the recall criteria laid out in the Municipal Government Act.
But the bar to reach for a citizen-led process to remove a mayor outside of an election is a high one: 40 per cent of the electorate must physically sign the petition within 60 days.
The petition’s representative, Landon Johnston, has from Feb. 5 to April 4 to collect 514,284 signatures of Calgarians who are eligible to vote. That’s 40 per cent of the 1,285,711 who were in the 2019 Municipal Affairs Population List for Calgary.
Following that time period, city officials have 45 days to evaluate whether the petition meets the MGA criteria. The city clerk must provide their findings at the first council meeting after that.
In an interview, Johnston said the single-use plastics bylaw was “the last straw” and the petition is meant to “put politicians on notice.”
“At some point, she’s going to have to answer to everything she’s put us through. And I believe this city requires more of a leadership,” he said.
A Ward 14 resident, Johnston said he was also upset at Coun. Peter Demong for voting in favour of the single-use plastics bylaw, a bylaw that council voted to begin to remove two weeks after it was implemented.
“He’s on notice as well.”
The HVAC technician said he’s heard from many Calgarians amid an affordability crisis fueled by record inflation and housing crisis, and he also cited the arena deal, whose details were recently released.
“It’s not just one thing. It’s so many different hands coming into your pocket,” Johnston said. “I believe with the right leadership in the City of Calgary, there’s an opportunity to right the ship for everybody.”
He said he recognizes the “monumental” task ahead of him. He also hopes Gondek resigns regardless of the outcome of the petition.
Political watchers said they doubt the petition will be successful.
Stephen Carter, Gondek’s former campaign manager whose CV also includes campaigns for Allison Redford and Naheed Nenshi, said amassing an average of more than 64,000 per week was “beyond impossible.”
“It’s impossible to imagine a scenario where that’s actually doable. If this guy winds up with anywhere nearing 50,000 or 60,000 signatures, I’ll be shocked,” Carter said.
“He’d need a signature from every household in Calgary.”
At 502,300 households according to the 2021 census, Johnston would need an average of more than one signature per household. <https://www.calgary.ca/research/population-profile.html>
Carter said the realities of political organization show this is not a viable recall option.
“To get this grassroots to work, you would have had to been working for months just to put together the teams that would go out and start this door knocking.”
Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University, said there’s “no way” the recall petition effort can collect half a million signatures on paper in two months.
But he said it could further damage an already beleaguered mayor.
“To put your name down, with address, in public, demanding a recall — that’s a pretty powerful statement. That’s not an online troll. That’s not an electronic petition,” Bratt said. “It would be quite a rebuke.
“She’s not going to be removed by this. But it could damage her at a time when she doesn’t have a whole lot of wind.”
Bratt said while Gondek doesn’t have a lot of policy “wins,” she hasn’t exhibited egregious behaviour.
“This should be aimed at personal behavior, not a policy issue. And there are people on council with those personal issues that maybe should be recalled,” the MRU professor said. “So I don’t think this is what it was designed to do, but it’s clearly depending on how many signatures they get a political message.”
The ability to launch a recall petition came in the Recall Act in 2021, which amended the Municipal Government Act effective April 2022.
The Village of Ryley, which had a population of 460 people in 2022, became the first municipality in the province to successfully use the recall petition process to oust former mayor Nick Lee.
According to a poll published in December 2023, Gondek and the rest of city council have suffered from low and declining popularity since the start of their term in 2021. The ThinkHQ poll said men offered harsher appraisals of the mayor than women and the mayor’s ratings tended to decline with the age of Calgarians polled. And wealthier households and more established communities had more concentrated disapproval of Gondek.
Since the Recall Act was passed in the legislature, there has been chatter on social media about launching a recall petition against Calgary’s mayor, but this is the first one to be launched.
In a written statement, Gondek said Calgarians voted for a mayor “who could bring balance and stability to this city at a time when polarized ideologies stood to divide us.
“I remain steadfastly committed to the work of building a future that holds opportunity and prosperity for everyone who lives here. We have work to do,” the statement reads.
In the October 2021 election, 45.2 per cent of people who voted for the mayor voted for Gondek. Jeromy Farkas was runner-up with 29.9 per cent of the mayoral vote.
Only 46.4 per cent, or 393,090, of Calgarians who were eligible to vote came out to the polls that fall.
More to come…
–with files from Sarah Reid, Global News