Alberta may soon have a way to toss out an MLA they don’t want before a general election.
At least if Mark Smith, MLA for Drayton Valley – Devon has his way. On Thursday, March 10, Smith introduced Bill 201 as a private member’s bill in the Alberta legislature.
If the legislation is passed it would allow a person or a group to start a petition asking for the removal of a MLA and a byelection called.
In order for a petition to be successful, a group would have to wait until a MLA has been in office for at least 18 months and collect the physical signatures of 66 per cent of the people who cast their votes in the riding during the previous election.
“I think a lot of Albertans, especially if they are my age, 55 or older, know how it is to live with a democratic system and have an elected representative act or behave in a way that brings honour to the seat that they hold and the constituents that they represent,” Smith said during a break in the legislature on Monday, March 14.
He said currently an elected representative could be in office for as long as five years before the voters in their constituency have a chance to remove him or her from their position.
“We (Wildrose) believe we need to give constituents the power to hold their representatives to account more often than just every four years during a general election,” Smith said.
However, although Smith and the Wildrose want to give voters the opportunity to effectively fire an MLA, Smith said they wanted to ensure people did it for the right reason.
“Recalling a MLA shouldn’t be easy and one that is done for a frivolous reason,” he said. “It shouldn’t be just because you are unhappy with the results. That is why the thresholds need to be high, but it should be doable.”
Using his own riding as an example, Smith said under the proposed legislation if 20,000 people were to vote in an election, a petitioner would have to successfully collect 14,000 votes within a 60-day period.
“That’s going to be difficult, but it is possible,” Smith said, adding, as sponsor of the bill, he is open to amendments which would make it better, including changing the threshold of signatures needed.
When asked why Smith specifically decided to bring this bill forward at this particular time, he said luck had a big part to play in it.
“I was first introduced to the idea of recall back in the 1980s with the old Reform Party and it just resonated with me,” he said, adding that one of the reasons why he decided to become involved with the Wildrose Party was its policy on recall. “I have always said if I ever had the ability to change our democratic system the very first law I would bring in is recall.”
As for the luck component, it truly was the luck of the draw which allowed Smith to introduce his bill. At the beginning of every legislative assembly session, MLAs get the opportunity toput their name into a draw to be able to introduce a private member’s bill. Smith won the first draw of this legislative session.
As for the chances of the bill’s success, he isn’t sure, but believes this is something MLAs in every party can get behind.
“I don’t see it as a partisan issue,” Smith said. “This isn’t about overthrowing the NDP. This is about giving the people of Alberta the ability to hold their MLA more accountable for their actions.”
Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken said he is in support of the bill. “Although this bill is being brought forward by one of our members, it comes from our member past policy,” he said, adding although it is one of the Wildrose Party’s policies, the subject was only discussed broadly during caucus meetings. “It is a private member’s bill and in our party that means they have the freedom to go forward how they see fit, but usually it is based on our member past policy to use as guidance as to what issues and legislation to bring forward.”
The NDP said they would not support the legislation and both the Liberal and Progressive Conservative (PC) Party voiced their concerns over the bill.
Liberal Leader David Swan said the threshold number is too low and it should be based on the number of eligible voters rather than 66 per cent of those who voted in the previous election.
PC Calgary-Northwest MLA Sandra Jansen has criticized the Wildrose Party for introducing the bill, saying there are more important issues to deal with. British Columbia is the only province to have recall legislation. Since the Recall and Initiative Act came into force in 1995, there have been 26 recall petitions. None have been successful, but one MLA resigned while the petition was being verified, according to the Elections B.C. website. In B.C., petitioners have 60 days to gather the signatures of 40 per cent of people who were on the voters’ list in each riding at the time of the previous election.
