A B.C. man has launched an effort to recall Premier David Eby, alleging he is a “dictator.”
Elections BC said Tuesday it had approved a recall petition application by Salvatore Vetro under the province’s Recall and Initiative Act.
The same legislation was used to successfully scuttle the HST in B.C. in a 2011 referendum, however no politician has ever been successfully recalled under the act.
Starting on Jan. 17, Vetro will have just under two months to collect 16,449 signatures from voters (40 per cent) in Eby’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding to trigger a recall.
All signatures must be from voters registered in the riding on Oct. 24, 2020 — the date of the last provincial election.
In his recall application the B.C. actor and retired bus driver pointed to the NDP’s proposed Bill 36 as his motivating factor.
The Health Profession and Occupations Act would overhaul the way B.C. regulates health-care professionals, including giving the provincial government power over regulatory college board appointments and to mandate vaccines.
The recall application claims the bill violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Nuremburg Code. Alleged violations of the latter, a post-World War II set of research guidelines targeting unethical medical experiments involving humans, has become a popular rallying cry of among some on the more extreme end of opposition to COVID-19 health measures.
“He’s a dictator not a leader. Invoked closure, threatened health care workers to comply or you will be fined, taken to jail, lose your license and he doesn’t give two hoots about our health care workers,” Vetro told Global News in an email.
“We’re in it to win it. God is on our side. People power works. We did it before with repealing the HST and we can do it again by recalling the Premier of BC.”
Vetro’s application also alleges the bill would “decimate an already imploding health care system.”
The recall effort is not Vetro’s first foray into politics.
On his website, he describes himself as one of the core organizers involved in the successful campaign to defeat the HST.
More than a decade ago, he created the B.C. First Party, writing in the Georgia Straight that “our goal is to develop for B.C. a smaller, more efficient, less wasteful, less intrusive system of government, similar to the Swiss system of direct democracy.”
And in the 2020 election, he ran in the Vancouver-Kensington riding, garnering 202 votes, just under one per cent of all ballots cast.
There have been 28 attempted recalls since B.C. implemented the Recall and Initiative Act in 1995.
While no recall petition has ever technically been successful in B.C., an effort to recall BC Liberal MLA Paul Reitsma in 1998 did secure more signatures than necessary. Reitsma, however, resigned before the signatures could be verified.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated Salvatore Vetro is a resident of Maple Ridge. In fact, he resides in the Vancouver-Point Grey riding. Global News regrets the error.
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