The petition to recall Gondek will come up short in forcing Mayor Jyoti Gondek to resign as it heads into its final day to collect signatures. 

According to the organizer of the campaign Landon Johnston, the petition has received over 56,000 signatures. The city provided Johnston 45 days to collect signatures before they cut him off and considered the recall petition successful or unsuccessful. 

As per the city rules, Calgary would need a total of 514,284 signatures for the petition to successfully recall Mayor Gondek, meaning Calgarians will be stuck with Gondek until at least 2025, unless she steps down herself. 

“The declaration of sufficiency or insufficiency [of the petition] will be provided at a Special Meeting of Council once the verification process is complete,” a city spokesperson told The Counter Signal. 

“Following the Special Meeting of Council, a press release will be issued as well.”

Smith says bar too high to recall Gondek

Premier Danielle Smith recently said the recall bar is too high given that only 390, 383 citizens voted in the 2021 mayoral election.

“If three times the number of people who voted for a person say that they want to reconsider it, then that seems to me to be a pretty strong expression of democracy, but it does give you an indication of just how high the bar actually is,” Smith said.

Smith further said the required amount should be closer to 40% of the electorate. 

Johnston agrees, telling True North that it’s “statistically impossible” to reach over 500,00 signatures and that “it was never meant to be 40% of the population.”

MSM calls people who don’t like Gondek racist (and sexist!)

On Wednesday, the Calgary Herald published an Op-Ed from Catherine Ford, who said the recall Gondek drive was done “under the guise of criticizing her style and leadership,” but, in actually, is due to racism and sexism.

“No one has uttered the “she’s not fit because she’s a woman” trope but I suspect that’s all part of it, too,” Ford said. 

A recent survey conducted among 1,116 Calgarians revealed a mere 30% approval rating for Gondek’s performance, with a significant 61% expressing disapproval.