With nearly a third of the United Conservative Party caucus now under recall campaigns, the leader of the Alberta NDP is calling the premier’s bluff and urging her to call an election.
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi said voters are angry and accused the UCP government of acting like “a college Republican club.” He argued the government had “gone too far in their virtue signaling.”
“[They act as] if they go and say, yeah, we love Jordan Peterson, then Albertans will be happy, but they’ve taken a step too far,” Nenshi said. “They’ve stripped away people’s rights, they’ve passed laws they knowingly know are unconstitutional.”
He added that the government is embracing dangerous authoritarianism and pointed to what he described as a recent DynaLife report as evidence of how far it will go. He said the recall campaigns reflect how out of touch the UCP is with Albertans.
“I don’t know how successful these petitions will be, but certainly they are incredibly destabilizing,” Nenshi said.
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According to Nenshi, if all 14 active recall campaigns succeed, the UCP caucus would shrink to 33 seats, costing them their majority in the 87-seat legislature. He noted that even a handful of successful recalls could be enough to erode their slim hold on power.
“That could mean we’ll be in an election sooner than we think,” he said. “Remember, the premier always has the chance to call an election and particularly on this issue of private health care, which is something she never campaigned on, which is something Albertans don’t want.”
“I’m calling her bluff. Call an election now. Let’s let Albertans decide what they want.”
Nenshi added that if a vote were called today, the NDP would be ready.
As of Nov. 25, 2025 the UCP MLAs facing approved recall petitions are: Demetrios Nicolaides; Angela Pitt; Nolan Dyck; Myles McDougall; Ric McIver; Muhammad Yaseen; Rajan Sawhney; R.J. Sigurdson; Dale Nally; Searle Turton; Nathan Neudorf; Jason Stephan; Jackie Lovely; and Glenn van Dijken.
The Recall Act — introduced by former premier Jason Kenney under Bill 52, allows constituents to petition for the removal of their MLA 18 months after a general election and at least six months before the next one.
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