Every signature on the recall Gondek petition has been invalidated over a technicality, and the organizer Landon Johnston claims that he was misled by the city.
The formal petition aiming to recall Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek was initiated at the beginning of February, and required Johnston to collect 514,284 signatures within 60 days.
Johnston informed social media users on Monday that every signature was invalidating “because we were missing a simple sentence directing people to the head petitioner with any questions.”
“The sample petition given to me in Feb does not include what they said was required,” Johnston added.
Even with validated signatures, the petition was going to be unsuccessful in forcing Gondek out.
A city clerk said staff counted 69,344 signatures, but they were not verified as a result of the technicality.
“I, Katarzyna Martin, city clerk at the City of Calgary, hereby declare the recall petition insufficient,” she said.
In response to the news, Mayor Gondek celebrated, saying “There are really important decisions to make on behalf of Calgarians and I’m glad we don’t have this distraction anymore.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the Gondek recall legislation “unfair,” in March, saying the bar was too high for petitioners to gather all the needed signatures.
Johnston, who operates a home maintenance company in Calgary, launched the petition after speaking with families during his routine work day, realizing that the vast majority of the families he spoke to had one reason or another to want Gondek gone.
“I have my own reasons, and everybody else has their own,” he said.
A recent poll by ThinkHQ showed that Gondek is the least popular mayor in Calgary’s recorded history, where only 30% of respondents expressed approval compared to 61% who disapprove of her. “For as long as there has been municipal public opinion polling in Calgary, there has never been a City Council this unpopular,” said Marc Henry, ThinkHQ’s President.
