Elections Alberta issued three more recall petitions Tuesday for members of the provincial legislature — two United Conservative backbenchers and one Opposition New Democrat.
It brings the current total of active petitions to 26. All but two are for UCP politicians, which means more than half of Premier Danielle Smith’s 47-member caucus are now facing recall campaigns, including the premier.
The new members of Smith’s caucus facing petitions, Ron Wiebe in Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Justin Wright in Cypress-Medicine Hat, are both first-term legislature members.
MLA Peggy Wright, the second NDP member to face a petition, serves as labour critic and represents an Edmonton riding.
The petitioners looking to oust Wiebe and Justin Wright say in statements that they’re motivated in part because the politicians supported the government’s legislation using the notwithstanding clause to force striking teachers back to work earlier this year.
The government also imposed a contract that teachers had previously rejected.
“An MLA’s duty is to defend the rights of the people they represent, not to strip them away,” Wiebe’s petitioner, Deborah Harris, said in a statement submitted with her petition application.
“Because his vote violates this core responsibility, this recall petition is being initiated.”
Holly Turnbull, the petitioner looking to have Wright removed, said in her application that she was also motivated by the UCP member’s lack of action on coal mining and health-care concerns.
Wright, in a statement to Elections Alberta, denied that he wasn’t advocating for health care in his constituency, saying he had organized meetings with ministers and raised issues through other channels.
“I have consistently represented constituent interests through active legislative participation and community engagement,” he said.
The government’s handling of the teachers strike has been a common complaint for petitioners, with many citing it as a factor behind their campaigns.
A spokesperson for the UCP caucus, Mackenzie Blyth, said in an email that the three new petitions, like those already launched, are an abuse of process.
“The recall process should not be used to overturn democratic elections just because an individual disagrees with government policy,” Blyth said.
“Our United Conservative Caucus remains focused on what we were elected to do, which is standing up for Albertans by growing our economy, lowering taxes, and creating opportunities.”
The petitioner seeking to remove Peggy Wright said he launched his recall effort because the NDP member isn’t accessible to constituents and was critical of the government’s move this fall to ban books with certain forms of sexually explicit content from school libraries.
“In the applicant’s opinion, any lawmaker who distorts such matters or facilitates the exposure of children to sexualized material is unfit for public office and subject to immediate recall,” James Boyd said in his application.
Wright, in her response statement, cited her past career as a teacher and said she knows what’s needed to make the public education system better.
“I look forward to continuing to represent constituents on issues of affordability, health care, education and services that matter most to them,” she said.
Petitioners have three months to collect signatures equal to 60 per cent of the total number of votes cast in their constituency in the 2023 provincial election.
If successful, a constituency-wide vote would be held on whether the politician keeps their seat. If the member loses, a byelection would be held.
As Elections Alberta has announced more and more petitions in recent weeks, the first few campaigns that were approved are nearing their deadlines for signature collection.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides was the first to be targeted in October, and the petitioner in that case has until Jan. 21 to collect signatures.