UCP Recall Petition: Crushed by Low Signatures

AIRDRIE, AB — The recall petition against UCP MLA Angela Pitt has been officially verified by Alberta's Chief Electoral Officer—and it didn't even come close.

Gordon McClure's office completed the first stage of verification today after receiving the petition from proponent Derek Keenan, a high school principal who tried to boot the Deputy House Leader from her Airdrie-East seat. The verdict: roughly 2,200 signatures collected. The target: 14,813 valid signatures—60% of the votes cast in the 2023 election.

The Math That Ended It

Keenan had 90 days to collect signatures under Alberta's Recall Act, which the UCP government introduced as a 2019 campaign promise. The window ran from November 5, 2025, to February 3, 2026. He announced on February 2 that he was pulling the plug, admitting the numbers weren't there. Elections Alberta used its prescribed statistical method—aiming for a 95% confidence level—to verify what was already obvious.

This marks the second UCP recall petition to collapse. The first targeted Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides and met the same fate.

The Spark That Lit the Fire

The recall wave didn't come out of nowhere. It ignited after the Smith government invoked the notwithstanding clause in late October 2025 to ram through the Back to School Act, forcing teachers back to work and imposing a contract they'd already rejected. Pitt, as Deputy House Leader, was a visible part of that machinery.

Keenan framed it as accountability. Pitt called it a weaponized abuse of the Recall Act, accusing Keenan of leveraging his role as a principal for political theater. She didn't file an official response during the public window, letting her public statements do the talking.

The System Works—Or Doesn't

Premier Danielle Smith has been blunt about her take: the recall process is being "abused" for political disagreements, not genuine accountability. Whether you buy that depends on where you stand on the notwithstanding clause, teachers' contracts, and what "accountability" actually means.

What's not debatable: Keenan paid the $500 application fee, followed the rules under Bill 52 (the Recall Act) and its 2025 amendment (Bill 54), and came up short. Elections Alberta processed the petition, verified the numbers, and closed the book.

The petition required 60% of the electorate to sign on—a threshold that was already steep before the 2025 amendment lengthened the collection window. In a riding where 24,688 votes were cast in 2023, Keenan would have needed to convince nearly 15,000 constituents to pull the trigger. He got less than 15% of that.

What Happens Now

Nothing. Pitt stays in her seat. The verification is complete. There's no recall vote, no by-election, no next stage. Elections Alberta will likely release a full report on the verification process, but the outcome is locked: the petition failed.

For the UCP, it's a data point in favor of Smith's argument that the recall mechanism is more noise than signal. For organizers hoping to hold MLAs accountable, it's a harsh lesson in logistics: collecting 15,000 signatures in 90 days across a suburban riding is a grinding, unglamorous slog.

The Recall Act remains on the books. Whether anyone tries again—and whether they learn from Keenan's numbers—is the only question left.