Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the Gondek recall legislation “unfair,” saying “too high of a bar” is set for petitioners to gather all the needed signatures. 

Calgary would need a total of 514,284 signatures for the petition to successfully recall Mayor Gondek, however only 390, 383 citizens voted in the 2021 mayoral election, as reported by Truth North’s Rachel Emmanuel. 176,344 Calgarians voted for Gondek.

The campaign requires about three times that — which is about 40% of the city’s population.

“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.

The Premier further said it seems unfair the petition has to “include everyone under the age of 18, (and) people who are not eligible to vote because they’re not citizens.” 

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

According to the organizer of the campaign Landon Johnston, the petition has received over 50,000 signatures and could soon receive 100,000. 

“We have additional petition forms available at www.recallmayorgondek.com. Everyone has been doing an amazing job and we are hoping to hit 100,000 signatures by next weekend,” he said last week.

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

“I just want to prove that this would be impossible… hopefully they’ll change it,” he added. 

How to sign 

Johnston’s website shows a list of Commissioners who are serving as volunteers to collect signatures in various neighbourhoods. 

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

Here are the top 10 reasons Calgarians are pining to put Gondek on EI.