Premier Danielle Smith defended her role as MLA for Brooks-Medicine Hat and criticized the "abuse" of recall petitions in her first press conference since her recall petition was issued on Wednesday. "Well, what it indicates is that the process is being abused," said Smith. "All you need to do is have $500, hire a CFO, and write a 100-word reason why you are launching a petition, and you can launch a petition." The organizer behind Smith's petition has claimed that she has no meaningful connection to the riding and criticized her policy decisions. “Despite having knowledgeable experts and frontline professionals within her riding, she refuses to consult them, instead advancing policies that weaken public services and promote privatization,” the organizer wrote in the recall application. Smith argues that she is doing an ample job of fulfilling her MLA duties. "Well, I can tell you that Brooke's Medicine Hat used to call themselves in the Forgotten corner, and they're not forgotten anymore," Smith said. "There are many, many projects that have moved forward in the last number of years that had not moved forward for many years before." .Recall legislation has been criticized by the UCP caucus throughout much of the Fall Assembly session, as the number of MLAs facing recall petitions rose to 21, including 20 UCP members."So we've been watching this, thinking that this is not how it was intended when it was first to come in," Smith said. "It's certainly not the way it has been used in practice in British Columbia, where they've had the law for some time. They only had 30 petitions in the last 30 years."Despite the public criticism and private conversations about potential legislation amendments, the UCP elected not to amend anything this session. "As I said, we are watching it with great interest to see if the rules are being followed," Smith said. "There's some indications that they're not being followed, and we'll have to make a determination once we see how they play out."
