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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Justice Mickey Amery announce proposed changes to several pieces of democratic process legislation in Edmonton on April 29, 2025. The Canadian Press/Jason Franson
Elections Alberta has announced two new recall petitions approved against Alberta’s Minister of Justice Mickey Amery and United Conservative Party (UCP) MLA Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk.
With the Dec. 17 notice of the two approved petitions, 22 UCP members, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, are now facing recall petitions, representing almost half of the UCP’s 47-member caucus. A recall petition was also approved Nov. 28 against NDP MLA and education critic Amanda Chapman.
Amery was reelected in the May 2023 Alberta provincial election for the riding of Calgary-Cross. The recall petition from Calgary-Cross resident Sead Tokalic said Amery has overlooked his diverse constituency and supported “harmful policies” that “eradicate” unspecified “rights.”
“As the minister of justice, he should defend rights, not eradicate them. His stances represent UCP policy decisions as opposed to those of his constituents,” Tokalic wrote in his Dec. 8 petition application to Elections Alberta.
Amery responded Dec. 12 to Tokalic’s accusations, denying them and saying that the recall petition against him is a deliberate misuse of recalls.
“The Recall Act is in place to address serious misconduct or ethical violations – not to be misused by partisan activists trying to undermine democracy,” Amery wrote. “As your MLA, my focus is on listening, responding, and delivering results that reflect our shared priorities. My commitment remains clear: standing up for Calgary-Cross and building a stronger Alberta.”
The recall petition against Armstrong-Homeniuk was filed Dec. 8 by Edwin Laarz, a resident of her riding of Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville. It accuses her of not being accessible enough to constituents and passing on the costs of orphan oil well cleanup on to landowners.
Armstrong-Homeniuk responded to Laarz’s petition Dec. 10 by saying she is doing her best for her riding and voters delivered her a mandate to stay in office.
“In 2023, voters renewed their overwhelming trust in me and the platform I ran on with an even stronger mandate. Their democratic decision deserves to be respected. I will uphold the commitments that earned this support while ensuring all voices in our constituency are considered,” Armstrong-Homeniuk wrote.
Alberta’s recall legislation went into effect in 2022 under former Premier Jason Kenney and was amended this past July to give petitioners more time to collect signatures and allow a petition to move forward with fewer signatures. The rules require that a petitioner reside in the riding of the MLA they are seeking to recall and pay a $500 fee, along with writing a reason for their wish to recall the politician.
After a recall petition is approved, the petitioner has 90 days in which to gather valid signatures from a minimum of 60 percent of the total number of votes cast in the 2023 provincial election from residents in the riding. If this condition is met, a vote is held in the riding, and if more than 50 percent of votes cast call on the MLA to step down, they must immediately resign, after which a byelection is held to fill their seat.
The last provincial election in 2023 saw 15,138 votes cast in total in Amery’s riding of Calgary-Cross, meaning Tokalic must collect 9,083 valid signatures for the recall petition to move on to a vote.
This October, a number of recall petitions were approved against UCP MLAs. Most recently prior to Amery and Armstrong-Homeniuk’s, three petitions were approved Dec. 10, namely against Smith, along with Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz and Technology Minister Nate Glubish.
Common themes in the recall petitions thus far include accusations of overlooking constituents, trying to privatize public services such as health care, as well as dissatisfaction with the UCP’s use of the notwithstanding clause in ending a recent strike by the Alberta Teachers’ Association union.
The recall petition against Chapman, meanwhile, accuses her of supporting unions at the expense of the well-being of constituents.
Premier Smith has said that the recall petitions aren’t being used for their intended purpose.
“As the members who are organizing the recall campaigns were calling to overthrow the government, I can tell you that that kind of language does not say to me that they’re engaging in the recall process in good faith,” Smith said last month in the Alberta legislature.
