Landon Johnston said had you asked him Monday if you thought a recall of Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek was possible, he would have said no.
Johnston filed for a notice of recall petition last month and the City of Calgary confirmed Monday that they had received the petition recall. Under new rules in the Municipal Government Act, through the application of the Local Authorities Election Act, any citizen can initiate a recall petition for an elected official.
The burden of the applicant is substantial. An applicant needs 40 per cent of the total population of Calgary – which means Johnston needs 514,000+ in-person, witnessed signatures.
“If you were to ask me yesterday morning, I would say no, there’s no way, her seat would be safe with this petition,” he said, noting when he opened his inbox this morning, he had more than 10,000 emails.
“But the amount of support I’ve been getting the last day here, it’s becoming more and more evident that there’s a bigger voice in Calgary than the opposition to this petition.”
Johnston, who owns Calgary-based Arctic HVAC, said that no one swayed him to do this. He was inspired by the legislation itself, and its reference to empowering citizens who believed that elected officials weren’t living up to their duties.
“I read that one night and I was like, ‘OK, well, that’s what I feel like,’” Johnston told LiveWire Calgary.
It’s been a culmination of things that got Johnston motivated to take action. He said the mayor has done this to herself and had many opportunities to “right the ship.”
“If this was you or me in a position and our boss sat us down after a big project and we only got 40 per cent of that project completed or the other 60 per cent of that project wasn’t done properly, there would be a major correction in our work, or we would be fired,” he said.
“It should work the same for elected politicians.”
‘Wake-up call’: Coun. Evan Spencer
Mayor Gondek took questions from the media on this topic on Tuesday during the noon break at the Public Hearing Meeting of Council. She admitted that the recall came as a surprise.
“I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t say, you know, it stings a little bit when you see something like this,” she said.
The mayor said she had concerns about the collection of the information and protecting the confidentiality of Calgarians’ data, particularly if it’s used outside of the recall opportunity. Still, she said while there are methods for people to reach out to councillors and the mayor’s office to learn more about why decisions were made, any kind of feedback on performance is a chance to reflect.
“I think everything we do in this role, if you actually care about the public service that you signed up for, is a moment of reflection,” she said.
“There are times when you have to consider the future of the city and you’re making decisions in the best interest of opportunity and prosperity well into the future. There are folks that are troubled about why you’re not doing something more immediate. So, I think the job is complex, the decisions we make are incredibly complex. We’re happy to engage with the public at every turn, and we will continue to stay focused on that.”
Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer said that he wasn’t surprised by the recall petition, given the nature of political conversation in the city right now. He said he was saddened, but not surprised.
“It has to be a wake-up-call-type moment,” Spencer said.
“I do believe the situation this man, this council finds itself in – there was a certain amount of the deck being stacked against us, but we can’t make excuses,” Spencer said.
“We need to respond to the way Calgarians are speaking up and raising their voices about how this city is being run.”
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Nothing more than theatre: Coun. Chabot
Still, Spencer said he believes there’s valid reasons why city council is making the decisions they are, but the direction of the conversation is concerning. That doesn’t mean they aren’t focusing on areas of importance, he said.
“I do think we need to figure out how to connect with Calgarians, and this council, in particular, has struggled with that,” Spencer said.
While there are issues of importance, and he expects not all decisions to be popular, the recent single-use items bylaw irked Johnston. He said it wasn’t the bylaw itself, but rather the waste of time in repealing something they’d already spent time and money on.
“Somehow this bylaw was put into place and then taken back just like that,” Johnston said.
“There’s just a lot of issues with spending public money on something that the majority of the public doesn’t want and then spending more public money to get rid of it. Now they’re even debating to put it back in, just different wording or whatever. They’re just out of touch with the rest of the population.”
Johnston said he believes it’s the mayor’s role to unite councillors, one way or another on issues and move forward. He called it a lack of leadership.
While the petition may have resonated with some Calgarians, Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said it amounted to little more than political theatre. That’s because meeting the signature threshold is unachievable, he said. He doesn’t believe it will change how city council approaches the work they come to do each day.
“I would say there’s people that may be frustrated with council, that have been in front of council numerous times on multiple different things and people that have been in been involved in policy development,” Chabot said.
“I’m not sure who this person is and what their involvement is with city hall but to me this just appears as theater.”
Johnston said he will leave no stone unturned in trying to make this recall happen.
“To be honest, I just wanted to voice my opinion. I just wanted to have my voice heard, which I feel in my capacity as just one person in Calgary, it’s just whenever I have a question or something like it’s always a battle to get through to elected politicians,” he said.
“This opportunity came up that was available to all of us. So, I guess what I’m trying to accomplish is that there is a recourse for a regular person.”
When asked, the mayor did say that she would entertain a conversation with Johnston on some of the issues he had with city council decisions.
The petitioner has 60-days from the point the city accepts it to collect the required number of signatures. Elections Calgary has a very robust FAQ page with more information on the requirements for the petitions.
