'Recall Gondek' campaigner has update on effort to collect 500K signatures

There isn’t exactly a shortage of reasons for Calgarians to be upset with Mayor Jyoti Gondek. In fact, the list is so long that Gondek is historically unpopular — she has the lowest approval rating of any Calgary mayor ever.

Gondek increased property taxes by nearly 8% in 2024 at a time when people are struggling to make ends meet, all while giving herself a raise. She refused to attend a menorah lighting ceremony to spare the feelings of Hamas supporters, and endeavoured to cancel Canada Day fireworks as racist.

She also declared a costly “climate emergency” only days after being elected despite never campaigning on it (you may recall that we sent a billboard truck out to remind her and the rest of city council that there is in fact no climate emergency).

She voted to defund police while the city descended into chaos, with crime and theft running rampant, and botched a new arena deal only to replace it with a much more costly one two years later.

The list goes on and on.

One Calgarian, Landon Johnston, had seen quite enough and decided to do something to hold the activist mayor accountable, so he started a formal petition to recall Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

With the 60-day window to gather petitions just over half-way complete, Rebel News joined Johnston to learn how many of the 514,000 required signatures have already been collected, and if he believes campaigners will reach that goal by the April 4 deadline.

With the bar for a recall being a nearly-impossibly high, and the required signatures far surpassing the total number of voters in the last municipal election (393,090) and dwarfing the 176,344 votes obtained by Gondek, we asked if any good can come from the petition even if they do not reach the half million signature mark within the narrow two-month window.

We also asked about the barriers affecting the collection of signatures and how people who share the majority opinion that Gondek is unfit to lead can become involved in the efforts to see her recalled.

Inept leadership, like Gondek’s, is rampant in major cities across Canada. Costs and spending are skyrocketing for everyone, and crime is on the rise because of failed soft-on-crime politics.

If you agree that we need decency and order restored in Canadian cities sign, our petition at FixOurCities.com.