Airdrie resident behind recall campaign says local MLA not representing community

The Alberta legislature is shown in Edmonton, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

The man who launched a petition drive to oust United Conservative Party legislature member Angela Pitt says she needs to go because she’s not getting the job done.

Airdrie, Alta., resident Derek Keenan says it’s not a political issue, and that his goal isn’t to replace Pitt as the MLA for Airdrie-East with someone in the Opposition NDP.

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Rather, Keenan said in an interview Tuesday, it’s because Pitt has become less responsive to community issues and concerns, and he doesn’t think people are being listened to.

“That’s been happening for some time,” he said.

“I had sent emails regarding various concerns to her over time (and) the emails that we were getting back, if she answered at all, were very stock.”

He said access to health care has been a long-standing priority for the community while more recent concerns have been around public education, but requests sent to Pitt haven’t led anywhere.

“Those requests don’t seem to go very far in terms of A: getting a response that is timely and personalized, but B: we don’t feel like those ideas are being heard at the provincial level,” Keenan said.

“I’m OK with you being part of the ruling party, but I need to make sure that our concerns are being raised.”

Pitt, who has represented Airdrie in the legislature for a decade, said Monday after Keenan’s petition was announced that she takes her job seriously.

“I, alongside our United Conservative caucus, remain focused on what we were elected to do, which is standing up for Albertans by growing our economy, lowering taxes and creating opportunities,” she said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the UCP caucus didn’t immediately respond to questions Tuesday about Keenan’s concerns.

The recall petition against Pitt is one of two to be approved in recent weeks against sitting members of the United Conservative caucus, though the government is aware that many more applications could be on the way.

Last month, an application to start collecting signatures to recall Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides was approved by the province’s chief electoral officer. The applicant behind that campaign alleges the minister, who represents Calgary-Bow, has been failing in his duties by not doing more to support the public education system.

Both Keenan and the Calgary teacher behind the Nicolaides campaign have four months to collect signatures that are equal to at least 60 per cent of the votes cast in the 2023 election.

For Nicolaides, that number comes out to just over 16,000, while Keenan will need to get just under 15,000.

If the petition drives are successful and the signatures are validated, a vote would be held within four months in each riding. If more than half the voters cast a ballot to remove either Pitt or Nicolaides, then they would be unseated as a member of the legislature.

Keenan said he was feeling confident that he’ll be able to get the necessary signatures.

“We’re getting people popping up with various stories about how they feel particularly Angela Pitt hasn’t represented them,” he said.

“There were much bigger issues than I thought were even there.”

Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally told reporters Tuesday that despite what the applicants say, there is a “left-wing activist organization” abusing the recall system to try and topple the government.

“They are well funded, well organized, and they’re targeting 21 MLAs in the hopes that they can recall three so they can force a general election,” said Nally.

“If this militant group wants to weaponize recall, I guess that’s what they’re going to do.”

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said the minister’s comments showed “the contempt with which this government sees citizens.”

He also said he thinks the recall efforts could succeed, pointing to slim margins of victory in certain ridings in the last election.

“If I were this government, I’d be taking this very, very seriously,” Nenshi said.

Justice Minister Mickey Amery, asked by reporters Tuesday, said the government wasn’t currently considering repealing or making any amendments to the recall legislation, despite ministers like Nally saying the process was being weaponized.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2025.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press