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Nine members of Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party caucus are facing recall petitions — enough to potentially tip the balance of power in the legislature.
Elections Alberta confirmed Monday that signature collection can begin for six more UCP members, including cabinet ministers Rajan Sawhney (Calgary-North West), Myles McDougall (Calgary-Fish Creek), Dale Nally (Morinville-St. Albert) and RJ Sigurdson (Highwood).
They also target House Speaker Ric McIver (Calgary-Hays) and Muhammad Yaseen (Calgary-North), associate minister for multiculturalism.
Elections Alberta previously approved petitions to recall Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides (Calgary-Bow), backbencher Nolan Dyck (Grande Prairie) and deputy Speaker Angela Pitt (Airdrie-East).
While reasoning varies, many of the newly approved petitioners said they were upset the UCP government used the Charter’s notwithstanding clause last month to end a provincewide teachers strike.
Melissa Craig, a teacher in Calgary petitioning for the removal of Sawhney, the government’s Indigenous relations minister, said the government’s move left her feeling defeated, but it also inspired her to take action.
“I couldn’t just let it be that,” said Craig in an interview. “I couldn’t just stop there and not take action and change the narrative.”
Another common reason given among applicants was that the MLAs being targeted aren’t responsive to community concerns or aren’t engaging with their constituents.
“Despite repeated outreach from community members, Yaseen has remained unresponsive and disengaged,” wrote Siobhan Cooksley in her application to Elections Alberta to start Yaseen’s recall.
“His actions demonstrate a lack of accountability and commitment to the people he was elected to serve.”
Smith and her UCP caucus have argued the petitioners aren’t using the recall system appropriately, describing the concerns being raised as disagreements over government policy rather than accusations of serious wrongdoing.
A school principal and a former Alberta Party candidate are trying to take down two MLAs. One of them is Alberta’s education minister. Demetrios Nicolaides has issued a call to action, urging supporters to help him fight back.
Sigurdson, who serves as agriculture minister, repeated that argument when speaking with reporters Monday.
“They are weaponizing it because they don’t like the policy that was put forward by the government,” he said.
“I don’t think that was ever what recall was intended for; it was meant for complete misconduct only.”
Nally, the minister of Service Alberta, said in a statement to the chief electoral officer in response to his petition that he believes the constituent looking to remove him “acts as a proxy” for an activist group pushing for an early election call, and cited voting records he had obtained that he said showed the petitioner didn’t vote in the 2023 general election.
“The question then becomes how does someone who does not even vote get talked into leading a recall?” Nally wrote.
In an interview, Nally’s petitioner, Joshua Eberhart, disputed the minister’s claims about voting and questioned how he managed to obtain that information. Eberhart also pointed out that whether or not he voted doesn’t make him ineligible to lead such a campaign. He also disputed the charge that he’s acting as a proxy for an organized group looking to topple the government.
“I’m just me,” Eberhart said.
“As a taxpayer, two of the things that I value most are education and health care, and I think they’re being mismanaged a little bit by our current government, which includes my local representative.”
When asked by reporters Monday to clarify his statement, Nally told reporters that he would not “comment on any specifics.”
Several campaigns are underway to recall Alberta MLAs, and experts say the UCP are in a difficult situation now that they’ve become targets of the same legislation they initially championed. But as CBC’s Jo Horwood reports, it’s not the first time recall legislation has been used, or become contentious, in our province.
Monday’s approvals follow Elections Alberta previously issuing petitions for Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, backbencher Nolan Dyck and deputy Speaker Angela Pitt.
Nicolaides has been accused of failing to support public education while those behind Dyck’s and Pitt’s petitions have complained about their ability to respond to concerns and address community issues.
The approval process allows those behind each campaign to collect signatures in their constituency over a three-month period and, if they collect enough, a vote is held on whether the MLA keeps their seat.
It’s a long, multi-stage process, but if all nine MLAs are defeated in constituency votes, Smith’s government would lose its majority status.
The UCP has 47 members in the 87-member house. The Opposition NDP has 38, and two former United Conservatives sit as Independents after being estranged from the governing caucus earlier this year.
The premier has said she’s talking to caucus members and other officials about making changes to the province’s Recall Act.
Smith told reporters last week she’s concerned the grassroots spirit of the law is being abused, perhaps through online fundraising and even foreign interference. The recall process was brought in under former UCP premier Jason Kenney.
