It has been a long road for Albertans to getting legislation for direct democracy, allowing citizens to initiate referenda and to recall elected officials. In 1936, the Social Credit government of the time introduced recall legislation, only to repeal it after it was used against their own leader. In 2021, the UCP government under Jason Kenney brought in recall and referendum legislation but purposely set the bar so high that it could never be realistically used. In early 2025, the UCP government under Danielle Smith amended the legislation to set realistic bars for initiatives.Now, Alberta’s organized labour movement is trying to blow the legislation up..EDITORIAL: Ottawa’s ‘Nation-Building’ pipeline deal comes with a steep price for Alberta.Recall legislation for elected officials is a great concept, but setting the bar for initiating a recall is tough. It must be high enough to avoid frivolous recalls, yet low enough to be accomplished if an elected official has managed to upset enough of their constituents. It is intended to be a legislation of last resort. If a person who is in an elected position has gone so far off the rails or has done something so terrible that most of the local constituents want them out of office before the next election, recall becomes a choice. It’s not meant to be used every time an elected person votes a way that local activists don’t care for, however, and that’s what’s happening now.Despite being offered a generous settlement, Alberta’s teachers’ union was insistent on staying on strike while never clearly expressing their demands. Alberta’s children were suffering due to lost classes, and negotiations were at a stalemate. The UCP government was forced to legislate the teachers back to work. Albertan unions, through their activist wings, the Alberta Federation of Labour and Public Interest Alberta, have decided to push back through abusing the recall legislation. Many recall petitions have been initiated against numerous UCP MLAs and may eventually try against all of them. The groups are playing coy with their support, but considering Public Interest Alberta, of which the AFL's Gil McGowan was busing supporters into one of the targeted ridings a few weeks ago, it's hard to believe they aren't involved..Most, if not all, of these petitions will fail, and I will explain why. The union-backed recall initiatives were inspired by disgraced former Redford MLA Thomas Lukaszuk’s referendum petition, which garnered over 400,000 signatures from people asking to hold a referendum about nothing. Lukaszuk’s initiative is asking for Albertans to spend the money and time to go to the polls to ask if we want to keep things exactly how they are today. It’s a pointless question and amounts to little more than a very expensive opinion poll. Lukaszuk thought he was scoring points by using the system this way, but it may have backfired on him as, with a rephrasing of his proposed question, he may have inadvertently initiated an independence referendum in Alberta.Referendum legislation is in place to allow Albertans the chance to vote on issues when they have become so important or so contentious that it’s best to put it to everybody rather than just legislators. Lukaszuk’s initiative ignored the spirit of that..HANNAFORD: Ottawa finally backs Alberta oil — but at what cost?.That said, it was still an impressive feat to gather so many signatures within the allotted timeline. Let’s not pretend he didn’t accomplish that without a great deal of help from Alberta’s unions, however.When petitioning for a referendum, the petitioners can come from anywhere in Alberta, and the signatories can be from anywhere in Alberta. That allowed Lukaszuk to focus in highly unionized areas and zones where discontent with the UCP was evident in the polls. Recall legislation is different..With recall legislation, not only must the people signing the petition live in the constituency of the person targeted by the recall, but everybody working on the campaign must live in the constituency as well. It is supposed to be a local effort, and if petitioning appears to have been funded or operated by outside help, the recall can be declared void. Petitioners must register with Elections Alberta, and nobody should be found without an ID badge proving they are registered and local. The unions can’t bus people or money into the targeted constituencies.In some of the constituencies, they are simply wasting time. They have targeted Alberta Highwood, for example. Conservatives always finish with support around 70% or higher there, and that won’t be changing soon. There is no way a recall campaign will succeed there, and it amounts to nothing more than waste and harassment..OLDCORN: BC’s pipeline hypocrisy — Eby gets a taste of how Albertans feel.What these initiatives do accomplish, though, is to overload Elections Alberta. The head of Elections Alberta asked for $14 million to deal with this. That sounds rather high considering the Gondek recall effort cost under $100,000 for the city of Calgary to deal with. Still, these initiatives will be a pain in the ass for Elections Alberta to deal with, even if they greatly exaggerated the cost of them.It's up to citizens in the end..Watch closely and report if you see a person petitioning in your area without an ID badge.Don’t sign petitions out of politeness. This is serious business.Of course, if you really think it’s critical that your MLA be recalled, it’s certainly your right to pursue it. Just stay within the rules..BORG: Lame duck Liberal MPs looking for international positions with cabinet shuffle coming.Direct democracy can be great. It works fantastically in Switzerland. But the process must be respected. We must stand up and ensure unions don’t kill the legislation as it gets out of the gate.
