Final 4 petition efforts to recall United Conservatives fall short

The final four Alberta recall petitions aimed at unseating United Conservative members of the legislature have failed.

Elections Alberta said Wednesday petitioners didn’t gather enough signatures to recall Justice Minister Mickey Amery, along with members Justin Wright, Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk and Ron Wiebe.

It means all two dozen petitions launched against Premier Danielle Smith and members of her UCP caucus since late last year have now fallen short or been withdrawn.

Less than 500 signatures were collected for the unsuccessful Amery petition of the more than 9,000 it needed — which represents 60 per cent of the votes cast in his Calgary-Cross riding in the 2023 general election.

Sead Tokalic, the petitioner seeking to oust Minister Amery, said last week the campaign was harder than he initially thought, and on the doorsteps he found many were not informed about politics.

“A lot of people don’t even know who their MLA is,” he said, adding that falling short of signatures shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign of support for Amery.

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Another petition against Opposition NDP member Peggy Wright has been deemed invalid, as the results were not submitted by the end of the 90-day canvassing period.

Earlier this month, a petition against New Democrat Amanda Chapman was withdrawn by the applicant.

2:18 Alberta recall petitioners has canvassers going door to door

Now, only two active petitions are underway targeting Progressive Tory Party Leader Peter Guthrie and NDP member Marie Renaud.

If a petition is successful, a constituency-wide vote would be held on whether the politician keeps their seat. If the member loses, a byelection would be held.

The first recall petition to be launched was against Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides. After three months of collecting signatures, the campaign wrapped up in January with about 6,500 names, or 40 per cent of the total of roughly 16,000 needed.

To date, no other petition has collected more signatures or achieved a higher percentage.

Most of the petitions against UCP members were sparked after Smith’s government used the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to end a provincewide teachers strike last fall.

Earlier this month, Smith said she knew that move created “a lot of concern,” but she believed unsuccessful petitions showed that concern had subsided.

“I hope that the results just demonstrate that people are feeling that we listened, we heard and we’re moving in the right direction, even if they disagreed with the way we went about it.”