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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is now one of 20 United Conservative MLAs subject to a recall petition amid a growing movement to try to remove members of her party from office.<\/p>\n
Petitions approved by Elections Alberta were posted<\/a> for Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Smith, environment minister Rebecca Schulz and technology minister Nate Glubish on Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n Those additions bring the total number of provincial representatives facing recall efforts to 21, including one Alberta New Democrat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Petitioner Heather VanSnick claimed in her application that Smith doesn\u2019t live in the community and hasn\u2019t made an effort to understand her constituents.<\/p>\n \u201cOur community and her riding is being ignored,\u201d VanSnick told CBC News after filing her application to Elections Alberta.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe isn\u2019t serving us in the way that we need to be served. She isn\u2019t an integral part of her own riding,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s not here.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith, in a written response to the petition, pushed back against VanSnick’s claims in a letter to Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure<\/a>, saying she was “proud of the results I’ve delivered for you.”<\/p>\n She cited a connection road for a beef processing plant in Brooks<\/a>, new and modernized schools and health facility upgrades in the riding as examples. <\/p>\n “I regularly make myself available to meet with constituents and I routinely host town halls across my riding,” Smith wrote, in part.<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s government has claimed the recalls are being inappropriately politicized.\u00a0<\/p>\n WATCH | Will the recall movement keep its momentum?: Can Alberta recall campaigns keep momentum? <\/p>\n Four new recall petitions were approved by Elections Alberta Friday, bringing the number of active campaigns to 18. As the CBC’s Jo Horwood reports, public attention could be critical to a successful petition. <\/p>\n \u201cThe recall process should not be used to overturn democratic elections just because an individual disagrees with government policy,\u201d said United Conservative spokesperson Mackenzie Blyth, in response to a request for comment from CBC News.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRecalls are meant to address breaches of trust, serious misconduct, or a sustained failure to represent constituents, not political disagreements,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur United Conservative Caucus remains focused on what we were elected to do, which is standing up for Albertans by growing our economy, lowering taxes, and creating opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Petitioners have three months to collect signatures equal to 60 per cent of the total number of votes cast in the constituency in the 2023 election.\u00a0<\/p>\n If successful, a vote is held on whether the representative gets to keep their seat. If the member loses, a byelection is held.<\/p>\n For Brooks-Medicine Hat, that works out to 12,070 signatures, according to Elections Alberta.<\/p>\n All of Smith’s opponents in the 2023 provincial election<\/a> received about half that many votes combined.<\/p>\n Jim Groom, a former political science professor at Medicine Hat College, said the petition could be effective in sending a signal, regardless of what happens. <\/p>\n “Whether they’re successful or not, it’s still it brings some advertising and a little bit of notoriety,” Groom told CBC News.<\/p>\n “It displays the discontent to some people in the the constituency field. So I think it’s [a] pretty, pretty effective idea.”<\/p>\n Smith made a return to the legislature after nearly a decade when she first won her southeast Alberta riding in a November 2022 by-election<\/a> called after becoming leader of the United Conservatives and premier.<\/p>\n Six months later, Smith’s support in the riding grew by double digits when she claimed 66.5 per cent of the ballot in the 2023 general election.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765394948_526_default.jpg\")
Heather VanSnick says Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Danielle Smith, who also serves as premier, is an absentee representative. (Eli Ridder\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765394948_460_default.jpg\")
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Jim Groom, former political science professor at Medicine Hat College, says the recall petition signals some unhappiness with Danielle Smith as MLA. (Eli Ridder\/CBC)<\/p>\n