Another recall petition falls short with only 10% of required signatures, and another petitioner withdraws

CALGARY— Another recall campaign to boot out an Alberta UCP MLA for Grande Prairie, Nolan Dyck, has come to an end — along with another recall for Minister of Children and Family Services, Searle Turton, being withdrawn.The recall for Dyck got only 1,000 signatures, roughly only 10% of the signatures needed by the Thursday deadline.The recall petition was approved for signatures in November by Casey Klein, a Grande Prairie resident."Grande Prairie, it's a conservative stronghold and we made a splash," she said Wednesday according to CBC News. ."We didn't meet that threshold. But if success includes community engagement and people taking action, standing up [and] their voices being heard, then I'm happy."'Dyck responded to the failed petition with a statement: "Over the past 90 days, I've had countless conversations with residents across my community.""I'm grateful for their encouragement, their candid feedback and for standing with me.""My focus remains on the work I was elected to do: advancing conservative principles that strengthen Grande Prairie and Alberta by growing our economy, improving access to health care, and ensuring quality education for our families.".So far, there have been 26 recall campaigns issued — and the recall against Demetrios Nicolaides, MLA for Calgary-Bow, and Minister of Education has already failed, getting only about 6,500 signatures out of the 16,000 needed. Another recall campaign for the MLA for Spruce Grove-Stony Plain and Minister of Children and Family Services, Searle Turton, has been withdrawn.Its petition applicant, Mona O'Neil announced Wednesday she will be returning all petition sheets to Elections Alberta — after she claimed there was confusion about petition signatories' privacy.O'Neil claimed there was concern it would become public knowledge who added their names to the petition — blaming Elections Alberta for its confused messaging about the privacy issue online. .She says she asked Elections Alberta for clarification, but after a number of weeks of delay, she decided to withdraw her petition. The office later told her the names and addresses of signatories would not be made public — however, she claimed it was too late, and she had already withdrawn. A spokesperson for the UCP says Turton will make a statement once Elections Alberta announces the end of the petition. The deadline for the recall would have been February 23.

Another recall petition falls short with only 10% of required signatures, and another petitioner withdraws

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