Tag: MLA Recall in Alberta

4 ways Danielle Smith’s UCP could react to the Forever Canadian citizen initiative

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 2, 2025

Has Thomas Lukaszuk’s pro-Canada petition boxed in Danielle Smith on Alberta separatism?

If there is one big takeaway from last weekend’s United Conservative Party annual general meeting it’s that the separatist movement in Alberta is deeply intrenched in the governing party.

From jeers and cheers to at least half the board candidates endorsed by the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project getting elected, the weekend gathering was a showcase of how influential Alberta’s most prominent separatists are in Premier Danielle Smith‘s UCP.

Alberta Politics

Total Recall: Nine UCP MLAs now facing recall petitions in their ridings

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 25, 2025

UCP MLA Dale Nally faces a recall campaign in Morinville-St. Albert (source: CTV)

MLA Dale Nally lashed out at constituent organizing recall effort in Morinville-St. Albert

And then there were nine.

Elections Alberta approved the start of six additional MLA recall campaigns yesterday, adding to the list of three already ongoing recall efforts against United Conservative Party MLAs Demetrios Nicolaides in Calgary-Bow, Angela Pitt in Airdrie-East, and Nolan Dyck in Grande Prairie.

The local organizers now have until February 22, 2026 to collect in-person signatures to recall UCP MLAs Myles McDougall in Calgary-Fish Creek, Ric McIver in Calgary-Hays, Muhammad Yaseen in Calgary-North, Rajan Sawhney in Calgary-North West, RJ Sigurdson in Highwood, and Dale Nally in Morinville-St. Albert.

Alberta Liberals rode the Reform Party MLA recall wave

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 16, 2025

Liberal Party leader Laurence Decore at a press conference with University of Calgary Students’ Union President Naheed Nenshi in 1993 (source: Alberta Views Magazine)

It would be more than 50 years after William Aberhart repealled the recall law before more attempts were made to bring back recall in Alberta.

Riding the same wave of populism that Ernest’s son Preston Manning rode into Ottawa in the early 1990s, the Alberta Liberal Party led by Laurence Decore adopted recall as an official party policy in the 1993 election.

“Recall is vital for Albertans because it gives people an element of control over their politicians between elections,” Decore argued in the Edmonton Journal in June 1993. “It also gives MLAs the power to tell their leader they can’t vote for a bill because their constituents wouldn’t stand for it. This power will encourage more free votes in the house and loosen party discipline.”

Premier Aberhart targeted with MLA recall in Okotoks-High River

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 15, 2025

It wasn’t until September 1937 that a formal application to start a recall petition against Premier William Aberhart in his Okotoks-High River riding was filed and submitted with the required $200 deposit (which is around $4,000 in current dollars).

“The said member, Hon. William Aberhart, has failed to implement promises and representations made by him to the electors prior to the election. He has supported government policies and enactment of statutes detrimental to the province and has lost the conference of the electorate of Okotoks-High River electoral division,” read the application submitted on September 20, 1937.

Alberta MLAs Joseph Beaudry and James Hansen the first MLA recall targets

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 15, 2025

Premier William Aberhart usually gets credit for being the first Alberta MLA to face the threat recall but that honour actually belongs to St. Paul MLA Joseph Beaudry and Taber MLA James Hansen.

Alberta’s first MLA recall experiment spiked when Premier Aberhart targeted

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 10, 2025

William Aberhart was Premier of Alberta from 1935 to 1943.

Social Credit’s recall law lasted 18 months on the books before it was repealed

A recent proliferation of MLA recall campaigns has fuelled speculation that Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government could repeal the law, just like Premier William Aberhart did when his party’s MLAs faced recall campaigns 88 years ago.

Aberhart’s Social Credit government passed a recall law in April 1936 and then repealed it in October 1937 after the Premier was targeted by voters in his own riding.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags 1937 Social Credit Backbenchers' Revolt, Accurate News and Information Act, Airdrie-East MLA Recall Campaign, Alberta Politics Substack, Alberta Recall Election, Alberta Social Credit Party, Angela Pitt, Calgary-Bow MLA Recall Campaign, Calgary-Hays, Calgary-Lougheed, Calgary-North, Calgary-North West, Camrose, Canada Election Substack, Dale Nally, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Demetrios Nicolaides, Ed Gibbons, Ernest Manning, Gary Dickson, Grande Prairie, Highwood, Jackie Lovely, James Hansen, Joseph Beaudry, Karen Leibovici, Kaycee Madu, Ken Nicol, Laurence Decore, Leela Aheer, Mark Smith, MLA Recall in Alberta, Morinville-St. Albert, Muhammad Yaseen, Myles McDougall, Nolan Dyck, Operation Total Recall, Paul Hinman, Preston Manning, R.J. Sigurdson, Rajan Sawhney, Ric McIver, Searle Turton, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain, United Conservative Party, Wildrose Party, William Aberhart

Alberta Politics

Campaign to recall UCP MLA Demetrios Nicolaides begins in Calgary-Bow

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 24, 2025

Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides (foreground) and Minister of Finance Nate Horner (background) (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)

As teachers rallied outside the Legislature, Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides learned he will face the first MLA recall campaign since the UCP passed the law in 2021.

Nicolaides’ opponents will need to collect 16,006 signatures from residents in the Calgary-Bow riding he has represented since 2019. The number of required signatures represents 60 per cent of the total number of voters in the last provincial election in the riding.

Evasive maneuvers! Alberta politics on a collision course!

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 24, 2025

A large rally of around 30,000 striking teachers gathered outside the Legislature to welcome MLAs back for the fall session on October 23 (source: @atalocal8 / Instagram)

A loud crowd of 30,000 teachers and their supporters welcomed MLAs back to the Legislature

When MLAs returned to the Legislature yesterday for the Speech from the Throne and the start of the fall session they were welcomed back by a very large and very loud crowd of around 30,000 Alberta teachers.

More than 51,000 teachers from public, Catholic, and Francophone schools across the province have been on strike since October 6 with workload challenges being their biggest issue, namely class sizes and per-student funding.

Instead of getting back to the bargaining table to negotiate a deal that could satisfy both the government and teachers, Premier Danielle Smith has signalled her government’s plans to fasttrack back to work legislation — and there is wide speculation that it could use the constitutional sledgehammer known as the Notwithstanding Clause to block any court challenges of the law.

The Order Papers for next week shows that Minister of Finance Nate Horner will soon introduce Bill 2: Back to School Act along with motions to severely limit debate at all stages of reading. With a 6 vote majority in the Legislature, UCP MLAs should have no problem pushing it through swiftly, though the opposition NDP can be expected to try its best to delay the passage of the bill.