In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge takes a closer look at the debate over direct democracy and how opponents of the government have taken advantage of the UCP’s own voter recall and citizen initiative laws.
In the aftermath of the teachers’ strike and the government’s use of the notwithstanding clause, a number of UCP MLAs are now being targeted with voter recall campaigns. The Alberta Federation of Labour has also announced its intention to try and force referendums on a number of issues, including the use of the notwithstanding clause.
All of that is in addition to the two previously approved referendum petitions: the Forever Canadian anti-separatist campaign (now going through the verification process) and a campaign to force a vote on private-school funding (currently in the signature-collecting phase). The government recently denied a request from the chief electoral officer for an additional $13 million to ensure that Elections Alberta has the resources to manage and administer all of these petitions and potential referendums and recall votes.
Our guest this week is Dr. Jared Wesley, professor of political science at the University of Alberta and co-author of the new book No I in Team: Party Loyalty in Canadian Politics. We’ll get his take on whether this tumult was predictable when the UCP brought these laws in, and what this all might be leading to in 2026.
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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.
