The growing effort behind the Recall Gondek campaign — and who's involved

A citizen's effort to recall Calgary's mayor is facing increased political scrutiny after a document began circulating on social media this week suggesting the endeavour is being supported by a group with the stated aim of putting more conservatives on city council. 

Landon Johnston, a local HVAC business owner, began an official bid last month to collect 514,000 signatures from Calgarians who want to remove Mayor Jyoti Gondek from office. When he launched the petition, he said he did it because he wasn't satisfied with Calgary's leadership.

Since the effort began, signs promoting the petition have sprung up across the city while volunteers have been collecting signatures in store parking lots and coffee shops. Johnston told CBC News he believes there are a number of parallel efforts underway to help him reach his goal, including his own and another group, which he knows as Project YYC.

Last month, Project YYC was registered as a trade name with the province by Roy Beyer. A Project YYC Facebook page has also launched, calling itself a non-profit organization it says aims to make Calgary "a better place for all." It includes a link to a Recall Gondek website. 

Tuesday, when a document attributed to them began circulating on social media, there was widespread speculation about what it meant. It included a list of names of people known in conservative circles. The document states the goal of Project YYC, in addition to supporting the Recall Gondek campaign, is to support the creation of a "big tent coalition" to elect for a "common-sense conservative mayor and counsel (sic)" in Calgary in 2025.

It lists 11 individuals as part of a "recall campaign core team." It includes two constituency board members with the United Conservative Party (UCP) and two Calgary "captains" with Take Back Alberta, a conservative political action group. There are also four people listed as "project advisors," two of whom are current UCP board of directors.

The group's campaign manager is listed as Roy Beyer, who was a Take Back Alberta Calgary captain and was co-founder of a group called Taking Back Our Freedoms. He said he didn't have time for a phone interview on Wednesday. 

"The leaked doc has no semblance to the reality of our efforts, all of it volunteer based and 100% in support of [Johnston's] petition," Beyer wrote in a text to CBC News.

Beyer said the document being circulated was a draft produced for discussion purposes and included a list of names that "our team had spoken to and/or intended to reach out to for collaboration purposes."

"Since this document was produced, many things have changed. As the Recall Gondek campaign was poised to begin, some people said yes to involvement and others said no," reads a statement released by Beyer.

However, the document caught the attention of Gondek, who said the document has changed how she views the effort to recall her from office.

"I can't say that this is a solo effort anymore until I know for sure what's happening with the information that's happening today," Gondek told reporters on Tuesday.

"If you start as a solo act and you want to keep things in your control and you want to have your message delivered, you have to understand when you're inviting other people to the table and asking people to participate with you, especially when you're accepting donations, what you're trying to achieve on your own becomes compromised."

The one-page document that circulated Tuesday states that Project YYC was in the process of being incorporated as a Part 9, not-for-profit organization.