Six bankers boxes stuffed with petitions were unloaded at the Elections Calgary office Thursday afternoon, marking the official end to the signature-gathering portion of the recall of Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
A seventh box, with signatures collected in the final minutes of the campaign, also made its way to Elections Calgary.
Landon Johnston, the local HVAC business owner who launched the petition on Feb. 5, made the delivery in person around 4 p.m. Thursday, 30 minutes before the 4:30 p.m. deadline.
Johnston told LWC in the days leading up to the delivery that he believed he had roughly 60,000 signatures. He ended up tallying 72,271 (unofficial). That falls far shy of the 514,284 (40 per cent of city population) needed to supplant Mayor Gondek.
Now the process to count the signatures received moves ahead. Elections Calgary officials will see if the 40 per cent threshold has been met. If not, the petition is immediately deemed insufficient.
“If the 40 per cent threshold of electors is reached, then the next process will be to conduct a random sample, as permitted under the Municipal Government Act, to do a verification process,” City Clerk Kate Martin, who is the Chief Administrative Officer’s delegate to oversee the recall petition process, told media during a briefing last week.
For his part, Johnston said it’s been a hectic experience. Through this, he wanted to let the mayor know thousands of citizens don’t like the job she’s done. Further, he wanted to expose the major flaws in the province’s recall legislation.
“The biggest thing is, everybody knew that was an impossible goal, but they still found a way to sign this. This is how important this has been to the City of Calgary residences,” Johnston said.
“I cannot believe how much support we’ve had. The mayor should be afraid; the mayor should be afraid of the people. All elected officials should be afraid of us because the power is with us. It’s only going to take the legislation to be fair for this to be used as an option for us to hold our elected officials accountable.”
Premier Danielle Smith has said that they are looking at changes to the recall legislation. She said, however, that they didn’t want to make changes while there were active petitions.
What Johnston saw on the signature trail
Johnston said that he was surprised by the level of support that came out of the woodwork in the hours after he launched the petition. Dozens of people stepped forward to help him collect and witness signatures and set up locations where he could canvas the public.
That, however, led to splinter groups jumping in and leading to a more coordinated and perhaps politically motivated effort to oust Mayor Gondek.
Still, there were barriers – lots of barriers, Johnston said – to locking up more signatures on the petition. He said everything from the weather to being kicked out of parking lots or pubs or public buildings. He’s been yelled at, too.
Johnston said he hopes the petition is a wake-up call for all politicians.
“Now it’s up to the people of Calgary to take that and run with it because, man, what I’ve seen behind closed doors… Politicians first thought when they wake up in the morning is what decision they make that day is going to help them get re-elected,” he said.
“That’s the very first thing they think about and the last thing they think about before they go to bed. It’s never about what’s best for us. It I’ve seen it firsthand. It’s just going to take us to get together and fight back.”
UCalgary political scientist Lisa Young said the number of signatures collected by Johnston is significant.
“It does suggest that there’s significant political discontent in the city. I think the mayor was probably aware of that before the recall petition came along, but it certainly has highlighted that,” she said.
“I think it raises questions about whether she’s going to decide to run again and whether she would be successful if she did.”
Problems with the legislation, and recalls in general
Young said that recall is a form of direct democracy, whereas provincial and municipal politics is a representative democracy. In that, candidates are elected to a specific term. Recall legislation has been popular in some provinces, like Alberta, but Young said there are several reasons not to want recalls built into the political system.
“It is a relatively short period of time between elections. It really does encourage people to be constantly fighting over this question of who was elected, to be going back to revisit the outcome of the election and trying to undo that outcome,” she said.
“I think that we can think of recalls as being disruptive to the functioning of a political system and in most cases, not necessary.”
Young also said that it was fairly clear a recall wouldn’t be successful because the threshold was so high. Another issue with the legislation was that there was nothing in place for accountability.
“There was no requirement that we know who was paying for this effort. Whereas if somebody is spending money on an election campaign at the municipal level, we do know, we know who’s donating,” she said.
“So, that raises all sorts of questions about what was happening here. Who was paying for this effort? Were organized interests behind it? Was it just citizens? We just don’t know.”
Johnston said he’s aware of the other groups out there and he welcomed anyone willing to chip into the effort. He didn’t take any money from outside groups but was able to raise roughly $19,500 via online donations.
He was concerned about other aspects, like the collection of data, or that anyone could claim to represent the campaign – whether for or against – and potentially just destroy the signatures once collected.
One of the groups that did help with the signature collection, Project YYC, issued a statement Thursday congratulating Johnston on his efforts.
“From day one, our commitment was to support Landon Johnston’s recall effort, from start to finish, and we proudly stand in support of him today as he delivers the recall petitions on behalf of all those who volunteered for and signed the petition”, wrote Roy Beyer, Project YYC Executive Director, in a prepared release to media.
Best winter ever in Calgary
While it was a grind, and there was dissatisfaction with the process, Johnston said he’s enjoyed every moment. He said he grew up in the Okanagan where he was used to golfing by this time of year – he didn’t envision being stuck in stretches of below freezing days trying to muster up signatures.
“This has been the most fun I’ve ever had in winter in Calgary,” he said.
“I’ve met people I never thought I’d ever meet. I’ve met friends that I never knew were out there. I met people that have the same opinion as I do about certain things and I don’t regret anything that’s happened.
“I don’t regret one piece of what we’ve done because the ball has now been rolled.”
He said he’s not done, either. He said they’re starting an organization that will help people coordinate for future petitions. Johnston said it would be a “force to be reckoned with.”
One of his targets is Ward 14 Coun. Peter Demong, he said. Coun. Demong was one of the reasons he launched the petition, but opted for the mayor because she’s “the head of the snake,” Johnston said.
On Thursday afternoon, the City of Calgary confirmed they’d received a recall petition for Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
“The City Clerk’s Office will now determine the sufficiency or insufficiency of the recall petition within 45 days of submission,” they wrote in a media release.
- With files from Abbey Whitehead
