Juno News - Petition to recall Gondek continues to gain momentum

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup i'm your host rachel emanuel today we are joined

00:00:17.040 by the infamous landon johnston he is the man who started the petition to recall calgary mayor

00:00:23.600 jody gondek landon thanks for joining us today thanks for having me rachel

00:00:27.680 so first and foremost obviously this is a pretty big feat that you've endeavored on

00:00:33.360 can you explain sort of why you decided to try and recall the mayor

00:00:38.880 uh i think like a lot of calgarians like we've been frustrated with the

00:00:43.760 the decisions and policies and um basically the last two years of what's been going on in council

00:00:50.480 um it's just it's just been one thing after another that's not

00:00:56.000 it's not making it easier for calgarians to live or stay in calgary um and then i just saw an

00:01:02.320 opportunity to file a petition and i took it um i no one asked me to do it and uh i just i thought

00:01:10.640 i was going to be doing it by myself like legit thought it was just going to be me so

00:01:14.480 yeah so it's really been a grassroots efforts i'm assuming when you're saying she hasn't made

00:01:20.160 it easy to live in the city one of the things we can look to for example is her increase of the

00:01:24.880 tax by 7.8 that's an absolutely astronomical tax hike especially when we're looking at the

00:01:30.480 rising costs of pretty much everything right now um i'm also wondering specifically you know just this

00:01:35.360 last year she tried to cancel canada day celebrations what did you think about that

00:01:39.360 i think if the mayor wants to be a cultural icon because i find a lot of her decisions

00:01:49.840 aren't based off of what's best for the city but it seems that what's best for her and if she wants

00:01:55.840 to be a cultural icon she doesn't have to be a mayor to do that she can quit and just be the head of

00:02:03.920 whatever she wants to be it doesn't have to be a mayor it just seems like a lot of those policies

00:02:09.040 benefit her um and maybe like a small minority of calgarians that agree with her um and that's

00:02:16.880 just like it people see right through it though like people are just sick of it they're tired of it

00:02:22.080 and you know call it what you want woke agenda whatever it is it's it's not benefiting us like it's

00:02:29.040 it's causing um more division amongst us like calgarians and canadians and we're done with it like

00:02:36.640 i think we're fed up with it and it's just you know this is an opportunity to um let them know

00:02:43.760 like hey like stick to the issues and stop trying to make this about something that we don't actually

00:02:49.840 care about like um like again it's just such a small minority of people that actually care that the mayor

00:02:56.800 is taking it upon herself to push these agendas but really it's hard to live in calgary like there's so

00:03:04.880 many calgarians on like the brink of bankruptcy or on the brink of losing their house or like it's

00:03:10.960 just like they're so obtuse on their policy decisions like it's just like one little tax after another it

00:03:16.800 just adds up and you know just think of like fixed income calgarians like they can't they can't afford

00:03:22.800 to live here like it's you know canada itself is becoming um it like the inflation by itself is is

00:03:31.920 insane but then it's just yeah like i said like just the taxes this council is like implemented

00:03:36.880 on us is just like a death by a thousand cuts and you know we've had enough of it so when you talk

00:03:42.400 about regular calgarians having enough of this what do you yourself do for a living and how have you

00:03:47.600 found the time to work on this petition are you away from work right now are you taking time off

00:03:51.360 doing it after hours what does your regular day look like right now as you're seeking to get

00:03:55.840 almost half a million or sorry well over half a million signatures um i mean i didn't plan on

00:04:02.720 doing what we're doing right now like i legit was just gonna go on saturdays and to my neighbors and

00:04:09.680 just collect signatures maybe try to get like three four thousand in 60 days um so the fact that this

00:04:17.520 turned out to be a lot bigger than i thought it would be um you know has forced me to adjust my

00:04:23.040 priorities um you know i do a track so that includes furnaces acs service work um so last week i was

00:04:30.560 able to install three air conditioners um you know so that that i made some money last week and then

00:04:36.480 this week i've had some service calls here and there uh but you know i just find like i can if i do

00:04:42.960 if i go to a house in calgary um i'll just go to like 10 or 11 neighbors on either side of the house i'm

00:04:49.520 doing a service call ad and get signatures um and then if i go to the grocery store i'll get

00:04:54.080 signatures um and then any free time like i would normally have in the winter i'd just be playing

00:05:00.080 video games or um you know um you know dinking around in the garage and so this has actually given

00:05:07.840 me um a lot of purpose for what i would normally not be doing a lot in the winter time so um this has

00:05:13.840 been it's been fun for me like it's been stressful but um meeting people and you know like listening

00:05:20.320 to like people that also agree with what i'm doing has been a lot of fun and very rewarding um

00:05:27.040 like as an hvac guy like i go to a house and i troubleshoot an issue and you know finding um

00:05:35.040 you know a fix for a problem is very rewarding and so what this petition to me is like i found an issue

00:05:42.640 and i'm working on troubleshooting and and finding solution for it um and there's a lot

00:05:48.080 of other people out there that are helping with me with that solution and again that's rewarding

00:05:52.720 to me like i enjoy fixing problems or how many other people are actually like working on the campaign

00:05:58.240 with you yeah it's impossible to know the exact number but i mean um again it's just me and then

00:06:05.680 all these other organizations had planned on doing this and i had no idea until they contacted me

00:06:11.040 the day of the the petition was certified and they were like hey landon we've got hundreds of volunteers

00:06:16.560 and um we've got website developers and all this stuff so i was like hey you have at it like you don't

00:06:22.400 need my permission to get signatures just bring the signatures to me when you're done um so it's in the

00:06:28.400 hundreds probably five six seven hundred people that have signed up um to volunteer either to canvas or

00:06:34.880 do admin work or help on the website um so it's it's a huge it's a huge amount of people that have

00:06:43.040 been doing this for free like i don't have any money like we're not

00:06:46.880 all the money that's been spent on this is can't come from my bank account at least on my end of it

00:06:51.840 like these other organizations had the infrastructure in place um and i just said you know what do whatever

00:06:57.360 you guys got to do to get signatures and just make sure it's illegal and uh yeah so far it's it's

00:07:04.960 hundreds of people yeah you have hundreds of people working to gather the signatures as i mentioned it's

00:07:09.360 over 514 000 signatures that are needed that's more people than even voted for a mayoral candidate in the

00:07:16.080 2021 election do you think that this is a fair parameter and how certain are you that you guys are

00:07:21.520 going to be able to get all those signatures it's it's impossible it's just statistically impossible

00:07:28.720 even if you had unlimited resources unlimited helpers um the pool of signatures is like 630 000 potential

00:07:38.960 um calgarians that can sign this but that doesn't take into account um like there's like 30 40 50 000

00:07:49.200 calgarians who do not speak english so like you have to find people that can communicate with those

00:07:55.280 people to sign the petition um there's elderly that you can't like ethically go into like a um a hospice

00:08:05.600 house to get signatures like it's just like the pool shrinks and shrinks and shrinks the more you

00:08:10.400 think about it because the statistics came from 2019 and those people like people have moved away since

00:08:17.600 the last census or 2019 um and then then it doesn't include people that have lived here less than six

00:08:23.520 months um you know you just think about um just how diverse the city is like there's there's a lot of

00:08:31.440 boundaries so i'm just saying like that that 600 000 number shrinks down and down and down almost to

00:08:37.200 below the 514 000 signature threshold right so it's it's impossible but that was my big mostly about

00:08:45.280 sending a message at this point yeah it's well it's to be honest it's about sending a message

00:08:49.360 about the petition itself because it's it's impossible it should it was never meant to be

00:08:54.640 40 of the entire population if you look through the bill readings and the select committee's

00:09:00.080 recommendations the recommendations were like 35 or 30 even of the uh eligible population that can

00:09:09.920 actually vote and that's possible like that's easy to do if you have someone who's um unfavorable enough

00:09:17.600 35 would be enough to recall that that elected official but let's say you have um elected official

00:09:26.480 who is favorable like 50 or something so that threshold of 35 you could potentially file that

00:09:34.400 petition but it would work that hey this is a favorable mayor or favorable elected official

00:09:40.160 so you're literally going to waste your time and money trying to kick him out but this was designed

00:09:45.680 the petition was designed to get rid of mayors or elected officials that were not doing their job

00:09:53.120 and if we have the the least favorable mayor in potentially the history of calgary we have unlimited

00:09:59.360 resources potentially and unlimited helpers because it turns out people from outside of calgary can now

00:10:07.280 volunteer we were under the impression that only calgarians could help us but now the pool of

00:10:13.920 volunteers has grown exponentially because yesterday we found out people outside of calgary can come in

00:10:19.920 and help us canvas get signatures they just have to be canadian citizen and over 18. so like i said with

00:10:26.640 all their resources and and um i'm like i just want to prove that this would be impossible i want to

00:10:34.960 prove like even everything we have it's impossible to implement this at such a large scale and hopefully

00:10:41.440 they'll change it so calgary mayor jody gonick responded to these recall efforts she said it stings a

00:10:47.360 little bit and she also warned calgarians who signed the petition that she isn't sure whether their

00:10:53.440 information will be kept private we're going to play that clip for you guys now now you've got a

00:10:57.840 recall opportunity where people will be disclosing their personal information to an individual and

00:11:06.000 i'm not really sure how confidentially that will be kept or what will happen with that information

00:11:11.200 landon what's your response to her i guess fear-mongering tactic here yeah that's exactly what it is like

00:11:17.200 that's that like she's she's basically pointing out the flaw of the petition that was designed by the

00:11:24.000 government like you know it is it is a lot of information we need a signature full name address

00:11:30.240 either your phone number or your email address like that's that's more information than i would

00:11:35.840 want to give the government um because i've had my my identity stolen and all i can tell people is like

00:11:43.360 that's that's just the mayor being afraid and using fear to to sow division because i have i i've had

00:11:50.640 had people say landon i really want to sign this petition but i don't want to give up my information

00:11:55.520 and i'm just like i understand like that's that's scary but the only people that are going to retain

00:11:59.680 this information are going to be the people we handed into right because by law we have to destroy all

00:12:06.080 records once it's handed in to us and i have no intention of of retaining anyone's information like

00:12:14.160 that's that would be breaking the law and i don't want to go to jail so um all i can say is we have

00:12:20.480 no intention of using anyone's data and it's actually the government that you should be afraid of because

00:12:26.240 we have to hand this into them and i don't know what they're going to do with it because i asked for

00:12:30.880 um the the records of the chain of custody once these are handed in

00:12:34.400 um and hopefully that they're destroyed because i i believe it says in the legislation that it will

00:12:40.720 be destroyed after the 45 days of certified certified certification is up um so again she's using

00:12:50.080 the fear of the rules against calgarians which isn't fair because you know the government already

00:12:57.760 has all that information like every like you're not giving us any information that you haven't already

00:13:02.560 given up to the government right like we're just that's just what they need to verify the signature

00:13:08.720 so if they call you i think they said they call like three or four percent of the total signatures

00:13:14.400 to verify that you are who you say you are and signed it or whatever so um but yeah as far as i know the

00:13:23.680 rest of the information is destroyed or has to be destroyed just my last question for you here

00:13:28.960 how much longer are i guess two questions rather how much longer do people have to sign the petition

00:13:34.160 and where can they get updates and learn where to sign it uh yeah so we have a website uh recall

00:13:40.480 mayor gondek.com um and so that'll have the nearest locations uh where you can sign um so basically

00:13:48.240 it'll be updated hopefully every day and then the most important thing it'll have your nearest commissioner

00:13:53.200 so if you have finished petitions we're asking like even if it's just like 10 12 people that have

00:13:59.440 signed it hand it into a commissioner and then they'll give you more petitions or you can download

00:14:04.160 more petitions um it's just we can't really get an official count and still until people start handing

00:14:09.360 in petitions and we're asking people to do it regularly instead of waiting till the last week because

00:14:15.600 that's going to be a gong show for us trying to collect all the petitions that are out there

00:14:20.560 um so yeah go to the website there's um hopefully all the information you need um we're updating it

00:14:26.720 and refining it every day um there is a twitter account um recall gondek yyc um where we'll be

00:14:33.440 posting like updated locations um and i just want to say a lot of businesses have stepped up and it's

00:14:41.760 that's it's it's weird i never thought it would be brave but it i feel like it's been brave of a lot

00:14:46.960 of businesses and individuals to step up um because a lot of people are scared they're scared of

00:14:51.680 retribution by the city for signing this or being a part of it um which terrifies me because

00:14:59.840 you know it's it was never about being brave but i guess like it does take a bit of courage to like

00:15:06.000 go against the government but i mean this is an opportunity for us as citizens to really

00:15:12.160 voice our opinion and let them know like um this isn't the way it's going to be from now on right

00:15:20.240 like i've been getting calls from all over north america um people keeping an eye on this because

00:15:25.440 if they see that people have a voice and have the courage and and strength to fight then there's other

00:15:34.720 like locations right across the world that are going to see this that it's possible to fight and stand up

00:15:40.000 against um you know policies that are degrading and um destroying our way of life right like so like

00:15:48.960 it's it's huge like it can be huge it just takes a little bit of courage to to put yourself out there

00:15:54.480 and sign it um or convince your loved ones or friends or family to be like hey don't be scared to

00:16:00.560 sign it like we need this we need these signatures we need you to get out um and it seems like a small

00:16:05.840 thing just to sign it um but in in the end like it's going to be huge like we're going to have

00:16:11.360 um a large number of people like we're just getting started like it's taken time to put teams together

00:16:16.560 and door knockers and and businesses and i mean we have five weeks left which isn't a lot like we're

00:16:22.320 up against the clock but we're just kind of getting the ball rolling like it's it's now we're we're out

00:16:27.520 there we're at plus 15s we're um at grocery stores um you know getting kicked out of libraries and

00:16:34.160 and really pushing the limits to where we can and can't get signatures because you know i think

00:16:39.200 it's important for the next people to file petitions to know what the boundaries are right

00:16:43.520 like if you can't go where the public congregates then again this just makes it that much harder to

00:16:48.880 to get signatures so right absolutely well we look forward to following this story with interest

00:16:54.320 over the next couple of weeks thank you so much for joining us today landon thanks rachel all

00:16:58.000 right everyone that's all we have time for today as always please like this video and subscribe

00:17:02.720 to true north we will be back with more content on saturday i hope you guys have a

00:17:07.360 great rest of your week god bless

Juno News - February 28, 2024

Petition to recall Gondek continues to gain momentum

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