JARVIS: Stop waiting four years — Ontario needs recall legislation now

Noah Jarvis is the Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.Ontarians tuning in to the news have been greeted with stories of politicians blowing taxpayer money on hotels and facing accusations of serious crimes.Wouldn’t it be great if voters didn’t have to wait every four years to hold them accountable?This isn’t some fantasy. Voters can take back control and hold politicians accountable outside election campaigns with recall legislation for all Ontario politicians. Put simply, recall legislation lets voters trigger a by-election without waiting for the next writ to drop.Politicians are elected to work on behalf of the people they represent. But far too often, these politicians betray the trust of the very people who elected them by backtracking on promises, wasting taxpayer money, or just acting like complete jerks.Politicians only stay on the straight and narrow when voters dangle the threat of stripping away their jobs.That’s why Ontario needs recall legislation. Here’s how it works.Voters can gather petition signatures from constituents in their riding to recall the politician. If enough voters sign the petition, a by-election is triggered that allows voters to choose a new representative or re-elect them if they run again..British Columbia and Alberta already have recall laws. Recall bills were tabled at Queen’s Park in 2004, 2013 and 2015, but didn’t pass.It’s not hard to find examples where recall legislation could come into play.Take the case of former Ottawa city councillor Rick Chiarelli. During his time in office, Chiarelli was found to have repeatedly harassed female employees and job applicants with sexual requests and generally unprofessional behaviour.Chiarelli’s behaviour was first reported in 2019, three years away from the 2022 election. Chiarelli refused to resign and remained on council with full voting power for three years. With recall legislation, Chiarelli’s constituents wouldn’t have had to wait around until his term ended. Voters could have stuck a fork in his political career a lot earlier and elected themselves a better city councillor to represent them.The recall tool should be available to voters when there are serious concerns with a politician’s conduct. And with a well-designed recall system, unserious petitions won’t have a chance of going far.Alberta’s recall law requires 60% of a riding’s voters in the last provincial election to sign a petition within three months to trigger a by-election. If 10,000 people voted in the riding in the last election, at least 6,000 people must sign the petition within three months to trigger a recall.More than two dozen recall petitions were started last fall against Alberta MLAs. They failed spectacularly because they didn’t get enough signatures and support from people in the riding..But even the threat of recall can have an impact. Former British Columbia MLA Paul Reitsma was found to have been submitting letters to a newspaper under fake names, praising himself and attacking his political opponents. Once Reitsma’s constituents found out about his deceptive letters, they began building a recall petition. Reitsma would later resign, one day before a recall campaign was triggered.Ontario Premier Doug Ford recognizes the need to police bad politicians, but he’s approaching the issue the wrong way.The Ford government recently passed the Municipality Accountability Act. But the law is a complex and bureaucratic process that requires an investigation from a municipal integrity commissioner, the provincial integrity commissioner, and a unanimous vote from the city council to remove the politician. Plus, the law doesn’t apply to members of provincial parliament or school board trustees.The ability to remove misbehaving politicians shouldn’t be locked behind a bureaucratic process that doesn’t involve voters. And it should apply to all politicians in Ontario.Recall legislation is the simplest way to empower voters and hold politicians accountable. It’s time for Ford to empower Ontarians and give voters the recall tool.Noah Jarvis is the Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

JARVIS: Stop waiting four years — Ontario needs recall legislation now

Related Stories

WATCH: Ford backs Flack letter: buy Canadian or risk provincial funding

WATCH: Ford cuts ribbon on $925 million Sanofi plant in North York

Ford pitches 15 Ontario projects as Carney opens $1-trillion summit

Science centre cuts entire science unit two years after Ford job vow