Braid: A decision on the blizzard of recall petitions will plague Smith into 2026

One big question for 2026 is what Premier Danielle Smith will do about the massive recall campaign against her UCP MLAs, and herself.

The explosion of recall movements in ridings across the province is surely the most bizarre political story of 2025 in Canada.

Twenty-five government members — more than half of Smith’s United Conservative caucus — are now under recall threat, after two more were added Tuesday by Elections Alberta.

There’s actually a chance that some MLAs and ministers could be voted out of office in mid-term.

The premier may do nothing, she suggested in a year-end interview. But that could change if recall becomes a “threat.”

The basic legislation was brought in by ex-premier Jason Kenney. Smith tightened the rules somewhat, but now feels she might not have gone far enough.

“Maybe we should have done a bit more rigour looking at it, because all you need is 500 bucks, a chief financial officer, and 100 words about why you want to recall somebody,” Smith said.

She says the question now is whether organizers can get signatures totalling 60 per cent of the voter turnout in the last election.

“I’ll watch with interest to see if that’s the case.”

That would force full-scale riding recall elections, and then byelections if the local MLAs lose.

“We’re still sort of guessing whether we would need to make any changes to the legislation. We chose not to in this fall session,” Smith continues.

“But I don’t know. I don’t know yet.

“I won’t know until the time period comes to an end whether the threat is real.”

She feels Albertans are generally pleased with the relatively small hit from U.S. tariffs, the state of the provincial economy, and especially the energy memorandum of agreement with Ottawa.

“So, I guess that gets balanced by people who are focused on the things they don’t like about what we’re doing.”

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Smith is not shy about changing laws and rules mid-stream.

She has already radically altered the referendum landscape by raising the fee from $500 to $25,000, and allowing a question on separation that was deemed unconstitutional by the courts.

At this point her caucus and cabinet see the recall outburst as a plague of mosquito attacks — deeply annoying, but ultimately trivial.

That will change in a hurry if their jobs really are at stake. The Operation Total Recall movement behind the drive has been far more successful than anybody expected.

The government blames unions and the NDP. Leader Naheed Nenshi says his party has nothing to do with it.

The law that permits recalls (only B.C. has another like it) lay dormant for three years after it was passed in 2022.

Then, Smith used the notwithstanding clause when she ended the provincewide teacher strike in late October.

Recall petitions exploded all over the province.

They revealed a legislative mess of loose rules nobody imagined would be used in a mass campaign.

The law was intended, Smith and her MLAs say, to be used against a member who commits wrongdoing or ethical breaches.

But the legislation contains no such guidelines. It leaves MLAs wide open to a challenge for almost anything from theft to halitosis.

Two New Democrats are also petitioned, but that’s a sideshow. The prospect of a UCP counterattack against opposition members never got up steam.

The UCP would look ridiculous if it misused a law they claim is being misused by the NDP and the unions.

Recall has been a dream for many Albertans since Social Credit premier William Aberhart enacted it in 1936, then rescinded the law a year later when a recall drive popped up in his own riding.

In the oddest possible twist, Danielle Smith now finds herself in a similar spot.

Nobody really expects Brooks-Medicine Hat to turn against her. But the recall genie is out of the bottle, and it’s much bigger than anybody expected.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.

X and Bluesky: @DonBraid