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A second recall petition to oust a member of Alberta’s legislature has failed after falling well short of the required signatures.
Derek Keenan, who has been petitioning since November for the removal of United Conservative Party MLA and deputy speaker Angela Pitt, says he’s giving up the campaign after collecting what he estimates to be 2,200 names.
Keenan needed to have just under 15,000 signatures by the end of Tuesday to force a constituency-wide vote on whether Pitt should keep her seat in Airdrie-East.
It means the first two of 26 petitions launched against members of Alberta’s legislature late last year have failed.
A petition against Alberta’s education minister also fell short of required signatures last month.
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The petitioner in that case collected just over 40 per cent of the amount needed.
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Keenan said he feels good about his petition campaign despite the result.
“I feel positive,” he said in an interview Monday. “It really wasn’t about winning the recall — if you want to call it a win — or pushing the vote, it was really about raising awareness in our riding and calling attention to some of the concerns.”
Keenan had launched the petition campaign by claiming Pitt was failing in her role as a representative by prioritizing partisan politics and failing to address or solve local concerns.
He said that since the petition was launched, Pitt has been more active in the community.
“That was what started the whole thing – so that has helped,” Keenan said.
Pitt opposed the petition, accusing Keenan in November of abusing his position as a high school principal to launch what she called a politically motivated campaign.
A spokesperson for Pitt and the United Conservative caucus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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