Recall petition for Premier Danielle Smith approved by Elections Alberta

A recall petition for Premier Danielle Smith has been approved by Elections Alberta.

In a letter provided to CityNews by petition organizers, chief electoral officer Gordon McClure says he is satisfied the application submitted meets the requirements of section 2 of the Recall Act.

In the redacted Elections Alberta letter, applicant Heather V., says she wants Smith out as her representative because she is absent and disregards the expertise of her constituents.

“Ms. Smith does not live in our community, has no meaningful history here, and has shown little effort to understand the people she was elected to represent,” she wrote. “Effective leadership requires genuine connection and consistent engagement, both absent in her tenure.”

“Her disregard for local expertise and community voices has left us without accountable leadership. Ms. Smith is no longer fit to serve.”

CityNews asked the premier’s office for comment and received a statement from the UCP Caucus.

“The recall process should not be used to overturn democratic elections just because an individual disagrees with government policy,” a party representative said in an email. “Recalls are meant to address breaches of trust, serious misconduct, or a sustained failure to represent constituents, not political disagreements.”

Elections Alberta has yet to confirm the petition, saying it posts recall petitions on its website only once they have been issued. Elections Alberta employees are legislatively prohibited from commenting on any petition before it’s issued.

Smith is the 15th United Conservative Party MLA to face a recall petition. She has until Dec. 9 to release a 100-word statement outlining why, in her opinion, the recall campaign against her is not warranted.

Action has been approved against Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, Speaker of the House Ric McIver, cabinet ministers Rajan Sawhney, Myles McDougall, Muhammad Yaseen, RJ Sigurdson, Dale Nally, Searle Turton and Nathan Neudorf, Angela Pitt, Jason Stephan, Jackie Lovely, Nolan Dyck, and Glenn van Dijken.

Each campaign has three months from its approval date to collect signatures equal to 60 per cent of the total number of votes cast in the constituency in the last provincial election. If the effort is successful, a vote would be held on whether the MLA gets to remain in their seat.

If they lose that vote, a byelection is held.

Just over 12,000 signatures would be needed for the effort against Smith to be successful.

Political expert Lori Williams says other MLAs facing recall petitions are more vulnerable targets than Smith, but adds the situation is likely raising eyebrows outside of the province.

“It’s a very high bar, it makes it very difficult to actually get the process going,” she says. “It’s a long, involved, difficult process.”

Smith has accused members of the Opposition NDP and labour leaders in Alberta of abusing the recall process in an attempt to overthrow her government.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan says the accusations being made by the premier are false and an attempt to justify potential changes to the Recall Act.

Minister of Justice Mickey Amery said Tuesday there are no plans to introduce amendments to the Recall Act in this sitting of the legislature, which ends next week.

With files from The Canadian Press