3 more Alberta legislature members facing recall petitions, bringing total to 26

Three more members of the Alberta legislature are the latest to face citizen recall petitions.

Elections Alberta approved petitions against United Conservative backbenchers Justin Wright and Ron Wiebe, and Alberta New Democrat member Peggy Wright.

Twenty-six Alberta MLAs are now facing recalls — 24 UCP legislature members and two of the Opposition NDP.

More than half of Danielle Smith’s caucus is now facing a recall petition, with Justin Wright and Wiebe joining Demetrios Nicolaides, Ric McIver, Rajan Sawhney, Adriana LaGrange, Mickey Amery and Smith herself, among many others.

Labour critic eggy Wright and education critic Amanda Chapman are the two NDP members facing recall.

The petition against Justin Wright in Cypress-Medicine Hat, submitted by Holly Turnbull, accuses the MLA of remaining silent on eastern slopes coal mining “despite significant risks to water and agriculture” and for supporting Smith’s use of the notwithstanding clause to force striking teachers back to work.

Justin Wright, in a statement to Elections Alberta, said he has advocated for health care by organizing meetings with ministers and raising issues through other channels.

“I have consistently represented constituent interests through active legislative participation and community engagement,” he said.

The petition against Wiebe also mentions the notwithstanding clause as a reason to recall the Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA.

“An MLA’s duty is to defend the rights of the people they represent, not to strip them away,” Wiebe’s petitioner, Deborah Harris, said in a statement submitted with her petition application.

“Because his vote violates this core responsibility, this recall petition is being initiated.”

Wiebe and Justin Wright are both first-term UCP legislature members.

The one against Peggy Wright, of Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, says she is “routinely inaccessible” by not returning constituents’ calls or emails and accused her of publicly supporting “keeping explicit sexual content accessible to minors,” a reference to the UCP government’s rules prohibiting books in schools containing explicit images of sexual acts.

“In the applicant’s opinion, any lawmaker who distorts such matters or facilitates the exposure of children to sexualized material is unfit for public office and subject to immediate recall,” James Boyd said in his application.

Peggy Wright, in her response statement, cited her past career as a teacher and said she knows what’s needed to make the public education system better.

“I look forward to continuing to represent constituents on issues of affordability, health care, education and services that matter most to them,” she said.

Petitioners have three months to collect signatures equal to 60 per cent of the total number of votes cast in their constituency in the 2023 provincial election.

If successful, a constituency-wide vote would be held on whether the politician keeps their seat. If the member loses, a byelection would be held.

–With files from The Canadian Press