Here's why Alberta's recall legislation is as mythical as Bigfoot
Graham Thomson | For CBC Opinion | Posted: March 19, 2021 12:00 PM | Last Updated: March 19, 2021
Bill 51 and 52 won't deliver direct democracy, says columnist Graham Thomson
This column is an opinion from Graham Thomson, an award-winning journalist who has covered Alberta politics for more than 30 years.
While Bigfoot was making headlines this week in Alberta, another mythical beast was spotted in the province: Democratic reform — in the shape of two pieces of legislation introduced by the Alberta government.
Bill 51, the Citizens Initiative Act, would allow voters to petition the government for a new law or amend an existing law. Bill 52, the Recall Act, would allow voters to fire elected officials including MLAs, municipal politicians and school board trustees.
At least that's the theory.
"This is one of the most important democratic reforms since our province was founded in September of 1905," said Premier Jason Kenney, no slouch when it comes to the art of the rhetorical flourish. "At the end of the day, ordinary Alberta voters are the boss in our democracy and if they lose faith in their elected representatives, they can hold them to account in between elections."
Indeed, Kenney did promise legislation for direct democracy in his 2019 election platform. He also promised jobs, pipelines and a stronger economy. He hasn't delivered on the latter but he's going ahead with the former.
But it's all a bit of a mirage.
The difficulty is two-fold: Bill 51 and 52 likely won't deliver direct democracy; and even if they did, direct democracy is riddled with problems.
Let's look at Bill 51 to allow Albertans to propose new legislation or amend existing legislation, or even force a referendum on constitutional matters.
For provincial legislation, you'd need to collect in-person signatures from 10 per cent of all voters in Alberta in person. That means you'd have to get more than 280,000 people to sign up in 60 days. All of this at your own expense.
If you want to force a referendum on a constitutional matter, you need double that: 560,000 names in 90 days. Plus you'd need to get that level of support from at least two-thirds — or 58 — of the province's ridings.
WATCH | Alberta introduces bill to allow voters to petition for changes
If you did everything right, the petition goes to a legislative review committee that can either send it along to the legislature with recommendations or put it to a province-wide vote.
Neither, though, is binding on the legislature. You could go to all that trouble and expense and still have MLAs say, "thanks, but no thanks."
When it comes to a referendum on a constitutional matter, a successful petition would trigger an automatic referendum. However, constitutional matters are under the control of the federal government, not the province. You probably won't even get a "no thanks" from Ottawa. Maybe a headline or two and a shrug of a very cold shoulder.
Since 1995, British Columbia has had 12 citizen petitions to change legislation but just one was successful to force the government to scrap its harmonized sales tax in 2011. That didn't stop taxes. B.C. now has two sales taxes: the five per cent GST and the seven per cent PST.
Recall bill
Let's look at Bill 52 designed to boot out an unpopular MLA between general elections.
This legislation is based on British Columbia's recall law but for the first time in Canada also includes the ability to fire municipal politicians and school board trustees.
Imagine a potential real-world scenario where voters in the riding of Lesser Slave Lake, for example, want to fire their MLA Pat Rehn who was ejected from the United Conservative caucus in January after Kenney declared Rehn "has made no meaningful effort to work in his constituency."
You would need to collect the signatures of 40 per cent of eligible voters in the riding, or in this particular case about 6,500 people, within 60 days. Then there'd be a recall vote where a simple majority result would remove the MLA from his seat. That would lead to a third vote — a byelection — to fill the vacant seat.
WATCH | Alberta introduces elected-official recall legislation:
The process could not start within 18 months of the last general election or within six months of the next one. That leaves a window of about 24 months to get things done.
It's possible but not likely. Under British Columbia's recall legislation, in place since 1995, there have been 26 recall petitions with only six making their way to Elections B.C. Five of those were rejected and one approved. The one MLA facing dismissal resigned before he could be officially booted out by recall.
It would seem recall legislation is more symbolic than pragmatic.
To boot out a municipal politician requires you to collect physical signatures from 40 per cent of the total population of the municipality, or ward, within 60 days.
If successful, the municipal politician would be fired immediately. No recall vote.
It's a similar case for school board trustees who'd lose their job if you managed to collect 40 per cent of voters' signatures within a 120-day period. That longer time-frame is needed to give the school board time to conduct a census to count eligible voters.
If it sounds complicated and time consuming, it is.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi thinks the chance of anyone being successfully recalled in a city the size of Calgary would be "zero" because of the amount of work needed to organize a recall campaign.
Stephen Carter, a veteran political campaigner and president of the consulting firm Decide Campaigns, spoke at length on CBC Radio's Alberta at Noon on Wednesday about problems with the UCP government's complicated democratic reforms. Carter called them "a dog whistle to their base that makes it look like they're actually doing something when it's actually completely unachievable."
Ironically, even if they were achievable, recall legislation and citizens initiatives ultimately undermine democracy. They play into the cynical narrative that politicians are dishonest, incompetent and can't be trusted. Referendums held between elections can also produce problems. Just look at the Brexit vote that was sold as an easy and painless way for Britain to improve its economy by leaving the European Union. Instead, the vote created chaos.
At the end of the day, we already have an effective recall law in place. It's called a general election. The next one is only two years away.