Premier to consider legislation changes following petition to recall Calgary mayor

Premier Danielle Smith said she would consider making changes to the province's recall legislation during Saturday's edition of her radio show on 630 CHED, Your Province. Your Premier.

This week, the call-in style show heard from Calgarian business owner Landon Johnston, who initiated the recall petition against Mayor Jyoti Gondek. Johnston called the petitioning process "very, very stressful," voicing concerns about a lack of direction from the Alberta government on how to navigate the legislation.

"I've been left out to dry for the past 55 days here," Johnston told Smith during his call to the radio show. "There are so many holes, loopholes, gaps in this legislation."

In response, Smith told Johnston that the legislation cannot be amended while there is an active petition.

"What I've observed from the process you've gone through is that it's an extremely high bar," Smith said. "We know that we need to make some modifications."

Johnston's recall petition for Mayor Gondek is Calgary's first recall since the legislation took effect in 2022.

The provincial government amended the Municipal Government Act to allow for petitions to recall elected officials, including MLAs, school board trustees and municipal politicians.

In order to initiate a recall petition in Calgary, an eligible voter living in the jurisdiction represented by the mayor or councillor they hope to recall must submit a notice of recall petition to Elections Calgary and pay a $500 fee. Once the notice of recall application is accepted, the petitioner has 60 days to collect signatures from 40 per cent of the population within that electoral district, according to the legislation.

In this case, Johnston, a decade-long Calgary resident, filed the petition on Jan. 30 and it was officially accepted on Feb. 5. Now, he has until April 4 to collect 514,284 in-person signatures, representing 40 per cent of Calgary's 2019 total population.

It's more signatures than the number of people who voted in the city's last municipal election. 

According to a post made to X, formerly known as Twitter, Johnston said he's collected more than 50,000 signatures as of Saturday night. As of March 21, he told CBC News he had counted 42,000.

While on the air with the premier Saturday, Johnston also expressed frustrations surrounding the provincial government's lack of response to his attempts to contact them about what he believes are problems with the legislation.

"I'll give you my commitment, Landon," said Premier Smith. "Happy to talk to you once that 60 days is up."

CBC News contacted Johnston, Alberta Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver and the mayor's office for comment, but have not heard back as of midday Sunday.