Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek and the man trying to oust her from office through a recall petition met briefly behind closed doors Friday.
Landon Johnston has been trying to collect over 500,000 signatures from Calgarians to invoke a section of the Municipal Government Act that would allow for Gondek’s removal.
The meeting lasted more than 20 minutes, in which Johnston said he shared concerns over affordability, public safety, the mayor’s declaration of a climate emergency, and issues he has with the recall process.
He also asked if she would resign.
“I’m okay with the conversation and the way it went. I’m just not happy with the resolution: she’s still the mayor,” Johnston told reporters after the meeting. “She’s still got two years if we don’t get 500,000 signatures. That’s a long time to make a bigger mess.”
In an interview with Global News on Friday morning, he said he has tens of thousands of signatures already.
Johnston said he isn’t happy with Gondek’s “job performance” and that he felt “nothing has been better under her watch.”
“For a lot of people, this is a messy city,” Johnston said. “For a lot of people, they’re running out of money.”
He also noted a jump in property taxes, an increase to the carbon tax, and a proposal to change city-wide zoning to increase density as concerns he holds.
Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Gondek said she felt Johnston has compassion for people struggling with affordability in the city.
“This is someone who is compassionate and he genuinely started a petition to raise of the issues that he thought council had not addressed,” Gondek said. “I had a very good opportunity to explain the investments we are making and the types of things we’re doing to not only address housing but address public safety.
“It was an important conversation to have with somebody who is very frustrated.”
She said she believes Johnston is genuinely concerned about the city and believe they “share a desire to do good things in Calgary.”
Despite their differences, both said the meeting was a cordial conversation about issues facing Calgarians.
“The mayor was very friendly, she listened to everything I had to say, the dialogue is opened,” he said. “It just sucks that it took 50 days and thousands and thousands of man hours for her to hear my voice.”
Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, said voters feeling heard is a challenge and that it’s incumbent upon elected officials have open dialogue on various issues.
However, she noted the current political climate has diminished “willingness to accept compromise.”
“In a democracy, being listened to doesn’t necessarily mean that you get everything that you want. Democracy is a bunch of people who have different points of view, maybe disagree even profoundly,” Williams said. “They enter into a process, compromises are struck and hopefully common ground can be found. But, ultimately, we have to accept that we won’t get everything that we want in that process.”
Both Gondek and Johnston also found common ground on concerns arising from the recall process.
It comes after allegations a group helping Johnston with the petition could use the personal information with the signatures to create a new local political party.
A document obtained by Global News shows a group called Project YYC aims to create a “big tent coalition” to elect “common-sense conservative” mayors and councillors in next year’s municipal election.
A corporate search revealed Project YYC has been a registered trade name since Feb. 16, by Roy Beyer.
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Beyer is named as one of the group’s directors and a core member of the recall campaign team, according to the document obtained by Global News.
Several signs advertising the recall petition around the city have a sticker showing they come from Project YYC, which also has separate social media accounts and websites to Johnston’s petition.
“(Johnston) was incredibly concerned that the efforts he put forward as an individual were being compromised by others who had a different intent,” Gondek told reporters. “He expressed that he was very concerned that people were encouraging him to scan the documents he had created.”
Johnston said the group came forward to help gather signatures, and that he gave them $3,000 of donation money he raised to help purchase the road signs.
He denied affiliation with the group and said he is frustrated with “loopholes” in the current legislation that could allow for “nefarious” behaviour.
“I have no control of what any group does with this information and this is the largest flaw in this,” Johnston said. “Any group can co-opt this.”
Earlier this week, a representative from Project YYC denied any data mining from the signatures they gathered.
Gondek said she offered to help communicate Johnston’s concerns about the legislation in an official brief to Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver.
“I have no faith (Premier) Danielle Smith is going to make this easier,” Johnston said. “Why would somebody in power ever want to make it easier for them not to be in power?”
When asked about the recall legislation at a separate event Friday, Premier Smith said she plans to “stay out of it and allow the process to play out.”
“The minister is looking at ways in which we can build a little more rigor around the process,” Smith said. “We don’t want to make any changes while there are active recall campaigns going on.”
Johnston has until Apr. 4 to collect signatures, based on when the City Clerk’s Office first received notice of it.
The city clerk’s office will be responsible for verifying and counting the signatures, a process Gondek noted she plays no role in.
To be successful in triggering a recall, the petition requires signatures from at least 40 per cent of Calgary’s population.
The city said the petition would be measured against a population total of 1,285,711, which means it needs more than 514,000 signatures to meet the requirements.
It’s a threshold Johnston admitted is unachievable.
About 393,000 of 847,556 enumerated electors voted in the last municipal election in 2021.
Following the meeting, Gondek said she plans to recommit listening to Calgarians concerns.
“There are many things going on in our city that deserve at least an equal amount of attention, if not more,” Gondek said. “I worry that as we focus on things that stand to divide us, we are not focusing on the things that bring us together.”
–with files from Global News’ Paula Tran, Adam Toy and Jasmine King and from The Canadian Press’ Colette Derworiz
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