BURST
Another recall attempt of a B.C. politician, another fail.
Elections B.C. announced Monday that a petition to recall Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie failed to collect enough signatures, gathering only about a quarter of what was needed.
The Recall and Initiative Act calls for a minimum of 40 per cent of voters in an MLA’s district to sign the petition calling for a recall. In this case, that number would have been 15,232, and organizers of the recall campaign only mustered 3,663 signatures.
The petition was launched on May 14 and organizers had 60 days to reach their goal.
Organizers from the “grassroots coalition” who rallied 118 registered canvassers still hailed the effort for sending a message and gaining the highest signature total in a recall in the past decade.
“In a riding where voter turnout in the 2024 provincial election was just 58.45 per cent, collecting signatures from 40 per cent of eligible voters was always going to be a significant challenge,” the Recall Brodie campaign said in a statement.
However, residents “shared a wide range of concerns with canvassers, including anger and disappointment with Brodie’s conduct, concerns about representation in the riding, and a desire for more respectful and accountable leadership.”
The campaign was launched after Brodie publicly made disparaging statements about the testimony of Indian residential school survivors, which led to her being ousted from the B.C. Conservative caucus. Residents also said local concerns such as schools and safety had taken a back seat to Brodie’s attempt to build a new party brand called OneBC.
“I wish my elected representative was someone else,” said campaign proponent Dorothy Cumming, a retired nurse and a resident of Vancouver-Quilchena. “Someone who had even five per cent of the dedication to working with and for the constituents of this riding that I’ve seen from the canvassing and organizing team behind this recall.”
The organizers pledged to continue work on how recalls work in the province, including updating the act to be more in line with the Election Act, and to turn their attention to the next provincial election.
This was the 31st recall petition since the act came into effect in 1995, and none has met the signature threshold.