The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - 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 emmanuel today we are joined

00:00:17.100 by the infamous landon johnston he is the man who started the petition to recall calgary mayor

00:00:23.300 jody gondek landon thanks for joining us today thanks for having me rachel so first and foremost

00:00:29.740 obviously this is a pretty big feat that you've endeavored on can you explain sort of why you

00:00:35.300 decided to try and recall the mayor i think like a lot of calgarians like we've been frustrated with

00:00:42.520 the decisions and policies and um basically the last two years of what's been going on in council

00:00:50.500 um it's just it's just been one thing after another that's not it's not making it easier

00:00:57.440 for calgarians to live or stay in calgary um and then i just saw an opportunity to file a petition

00:01:04.980 and i took it um i no one asked me to do it and uh i just i thought i was going to be doing it by

00:01:11.660 myself like legit thought it was just going to be me so yeah so it's really been a grassroots efforts

00:01:18.680 i'm assuming when you're saying she hasn't made it easy to live in the city one of the things we can

00:01:22.540 look to for example is her increase of the tax by 7.8 that's an absolutely astronomical tax hike

00:01:29.300 especially when we're looking at the rising costs of pretty much everything right now

00:01:32.860 um i'm also wondering specifically you know just this last year she tried to cancel canada day

00:01:37.860 celebrations what did you think about that i think if the mayor wants to be a cultural icon

00:01:46.580 um because i find a lot of her decisions aren't based off of what's best for the city but it seems

00:01:53.040 that what's best for her and if she wants to be a cultural icon she doesn't have to be a mayor to do

00:01:58.980 that she can quit and just be uh the head of whatever she wants to be it doesn't have to be a mayor

00:02:06.520 um it just seems like a lot of those policies benefit her um and maybe like a small minority of

00:02:13.460 calgarians that agree with her um and that's just like it people see right through it though like

00:02:19.820 people are just sick of it they're tired of it and you know call it what you want woke agenda whatever

00:02:25.600 it is it's it's not benefiting us like it's it's causing um more division amongst us like calgarians

00:02:34.180 and canadians and we're done with it like i think we've we're fed up with it and it's just

00:02:38.820 you know this is an opportunity to um let them know like hey like stick to the issues

00:02:45.800 and stop trying to make this about something that we don't actually care about like um like again

00:02:52.200 it's just such a small minority of people that actually care that the mayor is taking it upon

00:02:58.160 herself to um push these agendas but really it's hard to live in calgary like there's so many

00:03:05.380 calgarians on like the brink of bankruptcy or on the brink of losing their house or

00:03:10.300 like it's just like they're so obtuse on their policy decisions like it's just like one little

00:03:15.800 tax after another it just adds up and you know just think of like fixed income calgarians like they

00:03:21.480 can't they can't afford to live here like it's you know canada itself is becoming um

00:03:28.340 like the inflation by itself is is insane but then it's just yeah like i said like just the taxes

00:03:34.480 this council has like implemented on us is just like a death by a thousand cuts and you know we've

00:03:40.580 had enough of it so when you talk about regular calgarians having enough of this what do you

00:03:45.840 yourself do for a living and how have you found the time to work on this petition are you away from

00:03:49.980 work right now are you taking time off doing it after hours what does your regular day look like

00:03:54.120 right now as you're seeking to get almost half a million or sorry well over half a million signatures

00:03:58.640 um i mean i didn't plan on doing what we're doing right now like i legit was just gonna go on saturdays

00:04:08.440 and to my neighbors and just collect signatures maybe try to get like three four thousand in 60 days

00:04:14.540 um so the fact that this turned out to be a lot bigger than i thought it would be um you know has

00:04:21.680 forced me to adjust my priorities um you know i do a track so that includes furnaces acs service work

00:04:28.800 um so last week i was able to install three air conditioners um you know so that that i made some

00:04:35.600 money last week and then this week i've had some service calls here and there uh but you know i just

00:04:40.340 find like i can if i do if i go to a house in calgary um i'll just go to like 10 or 11 neighbors

00:04:48.060 on either side of the house i'm doing a service call at and get signatures um and then if i go to

00:04:52.980 the grocery store i'll get signatures um and then any free time like i would normally have in the

00:04:59.040 winter i'd just be playing video games or um you know um you know dinking around in the garage and so

00:05:06.240 this has actually given me um a lot of purpose for what i would normally not be doing a lot in the

00:05:12.100 winter time so um this has been it's been fun for me like it's been stressful but um meeting people

00:05:18.180 and you know like listening to like people that also agree with what i'm doing has been a lot of

00:05:24.020 fun and very rewarding um like as an hvac guy like i go to a house and i troubleshoot an issue

00:05:31.560 and you know finding um you know a fix for a problem is very rewarding and so what this petition

00:05:40.400 to me is like i found an issue and i'm working on troubleshooting and and finding solution for it

00:05:46.700 um and there's a lot of other people out there that are are helping with me with that solution

00:05:51.560 and again that's rewarding to me like i enjoy fixing problems or how many other people are actually

00:05:56.960 like working on the campaign with you yeah it's impossible to know the exact number but i mean

00:06:02.280 um again it's just me and then all these other organizations had planned on doing this

00:06:08.660 and i had no idea until they contacted me the day that the petition was certified and they were

00:06:14.420 like hey landon we've got hundreds of volunteers and um we've got website developers and all this

00:06:19.760 stuff so i was like hey you have at it like you don't need my permission to get signatures just bring

00:06:25.640 the signatures to me when you're done um so it's in the hundreds probably five six seven hundred people

00:06:31.180 that have signed up um to volunteer either to canvas or do admin work or help on the website

00:06:36.820 um so it's it's a huge it's a huge amount of people that have been doing this for free like i don't

00:06:44.540 have any money like we're not all the money that's been spent on this is can't come from my bank account

00:06:50.140 at least on my end of it like these other organizations had the infrastructure in place

00:06:55.240 um and i just said you know what do whatever you guys got to do to get signatures and just make sure

00:07:00.560 it's illegal and uh yeah so far it's it's hundreds of people yeah you have hundreds of people working

00:07:07.400 to gather the signatures as i mentioned it's over 514 000 signatures that are needed that's more people

00:07:13.680 than even voted for a mayoral candidate in the 2021 election do you think that this is a fair parameter

00:07:19.580 and how certain are you that you guys are going to be able to get all those signatures

00:07:23.400 it's it's impossible it's just statistically impossible even if you had unlimited resources

00:07:30.760 unlimited helpers um the pool of signatures is like 630 000 potential um calgarians that can sign this

00:07:41.360 but that doesn't take into account um like there's like 30 40 50 000 calgarians who do not speak english

00:07:51.040 so like you have to find people that can communicate with those people to sign the petition um there's

00:07:59.280 elderly that you can't like ethically go into like a um a hospice house to get signatures like it's just

00:08:07.420 like the pool shrinks and shrinks and shrinks the more you think about it because the statistics came

00:08:12.380 from 2019 and those people like people have moved away since the last census or 2019 um and done

00:08:20.880 and then it doesn't include people that have lived here less than six months um you know you just

00:08:26.140 think about um just how diverse the city is like there's there's a lot of boundaries so i'm just

00:08:32.360 saying like that that 600 000 number shrinks down and down and down almost to below the 514 000

00:08:40.320 signature threshold right so it's it's impossible but that was my big mostly about sending a message at

00:08:46.240 this point yeah it's well it's to be honest it's about sending a message about the petition itself

00:08:50.700 because it's it's impossible it should it was never meant to be 40 of the entire population if you look

00:08:57.620 through the bill readings and the select committee's recommendations the recommendations were like 35

00:09:03.360 or 30 even of the uh eligible population that can actually vote and that's possible like that's easy

00:09:13.360 to do if you have someone who's um unfavorable enough 35 would be enough to recall that that elected

00:09:22.080 official but let's say you have um elected official who is favorable like 50 or something

00:09:30.480 so that threshold of 35 you could potentially file that petition but it would work that hey this is a

00:09:37.360 favorable mayor or favorable elected official so you're literally going to waste your time and money trying to

00:09:43.120 kick him out um but this was designed the petition was designed to get rid of mayors or elected

00:09:49.680 officials that were not doing their job um and if we have the the least favorable mayor in potentially the

00:09:56.720 history of calgary um we have unlimited resources potentially and unlimited helpers um because it turns

00:10:04.560 out people from outside of calgary can now volunteer um we were under the impression that only calgarians could

00:10:11.840 help us um but now the pool of volunteers has grown exponentially because yesterday we found out

00:10:17.680 people outside of calgary can come in and help us canvas get signatures um they just have to be

00:10:23.120 canadian citizen and over 18. um so like i said with all the resources and and um i'm like i just want to

00:10:33.120 prove that this would be impossible i want to prove like even everything we have it's impossible to

00:10:38.320 to implement this at such a large scale and hopefully they'll change it so calgary mayor jody

00:10:44.480 gonick responded to these recall efforts she said it stings a little bit and she also warned calgarians

00:10:50.640 who signed the petition that she isn't sure whether their information will be kept private we're going to play that clip for you guys now

00:10:56.320 now you've got a recall opportunity where people will be disclosing their personal information

00:11:02.960 to an individual and i'm not really sure how confidentially that will be kept or what will

00:11:09.680 happen with that information landon what's your response to her i guess fear-mongering tactic here

00:11:15.600 yeah that's exactly what it is like that's that like she's she's basically pointing out the flaw of

00:11:22.240 the petition that was designed by the government like you know it is it is a lot of information we

00:11:27.520 need uh signature full name address either your phone number or your email address like that's

00:11:33.760 that's more information than i would want to give the government um because i've had my my identity stolen

00:11:41.520 and all i can tell people is like that's that's just the mayor being afraid and using fear to to

00:11:48.400 sow division because i have i i've had had people say landon i really want to sign this petition but

00:11:53.600 i don't want to give up my information and i'm just like i understand like that's that's scary but the

00:11:58.240 only people that are going to retain this information are going to be the people we hand it into right

00:12:03.840 because by law we have to destroy all records once it's handed into us and i have no intention of of

00:12:12.560 retaining anyone's information like that's that would be breaking the law and i don't want to go to jail so

00:12:18.320 all i can say is we have no intention of using anyone's data and it's actually the government

00:12:24.240 that you should be afraid of because we have to hand this into them and i don't know what they're

00:12:28.720 going to do with it because i asked for um the the records of the chain of custody once these are handed in

00:12:35.200 um and hopefully that they're destroyed because i i believe it says in the legislation that it will be

00:12:40.880 destroyed after the 45 days of certified certified certification is up um so again she's using the

00:12:50.320 fear of the rules against calgarians which isn't fair because you know the government already has all

00:12:58.160 that information like every like you're not giving us any information that you haven't already given up

00:13:03.040 to the government right like we're just that's just what they need to verify the signature so

00:13:09.440 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 or 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 gondec.com um and so that'll have the nearest locations uh where you can sign um so basically it'll

00:13:48.480 be updated hopefully every day and then the most important thing it'll have your nearest commissioner so

00:13:53.440 if you have finished petitions we're asking like even if it's just like 10 12 people that have signed

00:13:59.760 it hand it into a commissioner and then they'll give you more petitions or you can download more

00:14:04.480 petitions um it's just we can't really get an official count and stuff until people start handing

00:14:09.440 in petitions and we're asking people to do it regularly instead of waiting till the last week because

00:14:15.680 that's going to be a gong show for us trying to collect all the petitions that are out there um so yeah go

00:14:21.680 to the website there's um hopefully all the information you need um we're updating it and

00:14:27.120 refining it every day um there is a twitter account um recall gondec yyc um where we'll be posting like

00:14:34.160 updated locations um and i just want to say a lot of businesses have stepped up and it's that's it's

00:14:42.880 it's weird i never thought it would be brave but i feel like it's been brave of a lot of businesses and

00:14:47.840 individuals to step up um because a lot of people are scared they're scared of retribution by the city

00:14:53.280 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

00:15:06.080 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

00:15:20.320 like i've been getting calls from all over north america um people keeping an eye on this because

00:15:25.520 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

00:15:40.080 against um you know policies that are degrading and um destroying our way of life right like so like

00:15:49.040 it's it's huge like it can be huge it just takes a little bit of courage to to put yourself out there

00:15:54.560 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

00:16:05.920 thing just to sign it um but in in the end like it's gonna be huge like we're gonna have um a large

00:16:12.400 number of people like we're just getting started like it's taken time to put teams together and door

00:16:16.960 knockers and and businesses and i mean we have five weeks left which isn't a lot like we're up against

00:16:22.800 the clock but we're just kind of getting the ball rolling like it's it's now we're we're out there

00:16:27.760 we're at plus 15s we're um at grocery stores um you know getting kicked out of libraries and and really

00:16:34.720 pushing the the limits to where we can and can't get signatures because you know i think it's

00:16:39.440 important for the next people to file petitions to know what the boundaries are right like if you

00:16:44.080 can't go where the public congregates then again this just makes it that much harder to to get

00:16:49.280 signatures so right absolutely well we look forward to following this story with interest

00:16:54.400 over the next couple of weeks thank you so much for joining us today landon thanks rachel

00:16:57.920 all right everyone that's all we have time for today as always please like this video

00:17:02.000 and subscribe to true north we will be back with more content on saturday i hope you guys have a

00:17:07.440 great rest of your week god bless

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - February 28, 2024

Petition to recall Gondek continues to gain momentum

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