Education minister's recall bid 10,000 signatures short, two weeks before deadline

A petitioner looking to oust an Alberta cabinet minister says she has a huge task ahead, as the campaign nears its deadline for signature collection.

In an interview Tuesday, Jenny Yeremiy said she thinks the petition has garnered about 6,000 signatures since the end of October.

It needs another 10,000 in the next two weeks to force a constituency-wide vote on whether Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides should lose his seat.

Yeremiy said a big push for signatures is planned for the final days but acknowledged getting that many in such a short time would be a major accomplishment.

"I certainly didn't go into this work believing that this was a slam dunk," she said.

"We've been getting the information out to people, and now we need them to take action."

The petition was the first of 26 launched against members of Alberta's legislature in the final months of 2025.

Twenty-four are against members of Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative caucus, including the premier herself. The two others are against members of the Opposition NDP.

Many of the petitioners have said they were motivated by the government using the Charter's notwithstanding clause to halt a provincewide teachers strike at the end of October.

Yeremiy has criticized the move as well, although her petition against Nicolaides was launched days before the government ended the strike and forced on teachers a contract with terms that had previously been rejected.

In her application to Elections Alberta, Yeremiy wrote that she wanted the petition over the minister's "clear failure to support public education."

"Governments are meant to actually provide services, and this government is not doing that," Yeremiy said in an interview Tuesday.

"They're doing the opposite of that. They're taking our services away in full view."

Yeremiy said if she falls short on signatures, the campaign should still be considered a success for getting people engaged with politics, especially if the government calls an early provincial election. Smith dismissed that possibility last week.