Recall Gondek signs will be removed due to bylaw violations: City of Calgary

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Signs demanding the ousting of Mayor Jyoti Gondek will be removed for violating a bylaw, the city said in a statement late Friday.

The city invoked the Temporary Signs on Highways Bylaw 29M97, citing the signs’ size and location as reasons for the breach, and adding further violations will be fined.

“We are aware of a number of signs placed by Project YYC that are not in compliance with the bylaw due to size or location and have either been removed or will be scheduled for removal as they are reported as part of our standard processes,” the statement read.

The development ends a days-long controversy involving signs popping up across the city and a couple of citizens painting over at last one in opposition.

The movement to recall the mayor began with a Calgary resident and the owner of an HVAC business named Landon Johnston, who grew disgruntled with the city’s bylaw charging customers 15 cents for a paper bag.

The bylaw, which the city council has since voted to repeal, was the “last straw” for Johnston, who also disagreed with several other municipal announcements, including a 7.8 per cent hike in property taxes and the city’s declaration of a climate emergency.

Johnston submitted on Jan. 30 a petition to revoke Gondek’s position, a move that requires more than 500,000 signatures or 40 per cent of the city’s population as of 2019 in 60 days to succeed. Critics say it is a Sisyphean task.

Johnston held several public gatherings to collect signatures, but soon, his efforts were allegedly fuelled by support from a growing conservative movement in Calgary’s municipal politics.

Political science professor Duane Bratt told Postmedia in an earlier interview Johnston’s initiative “has been co-opted by a larger group of conservatives more concerned with data mining for the eventuality of a Calgary Conservative Party.”’

He posted a photographed pamphlet to X on Tuesday about ‘Project YYC’ — a campaign to leverage Johnston’s recall petition into the creation of a future conservative party, which would field candidates in the 2025 municipal election.

Bratt has since deleted the post after two of the advisers at large listed on the Project YYC pamphlet denied any involvement or knowledge of the initiative, although Bratt maintained his position in the interview with Postmedia.

Johnston denied knowing anything about Project YYC, adding he hasn’t refused support from anyone who adhered to the boundaries of the recall legislation.

“I’ve been doing this by the book, and I can only guarantee that what I’m doing is by the book,” he said in an earlier interview with Postmedia. “I’m in my own little bubble and everybody outside of that bubble is doing their own thing.”

However, in an interview with the CBC, he said he gave Project YYC $3,000 out of the donations he had received after they approached him with an offer to gather more signatures.

“And I said, ‘Well, here’s so much money,’ and I basically gave them a big portion of the funds I got, because that’s not my skill set. My skill set’s never been organizing anything,” Johnston said in the interview.

Johnston told Postmedia on Saturday he did send money to Project YYC, but he said he wasn’t aware they were a partisan group.

“I just didn’t realize out of haste or out of excitement that I gave it to Project YYC,” he said “They go under Recall Gondek YYC as well.”

He said when he transferred the payment to the group, he saw the name Project YYC appear as the recipient on his screen, but he didn’t care to look up the initiative — a departure from what he had earlier told Postmedia.

“I apologize for not making that connection sooner,” he said. “I think I’ve got ADD in that a lot of this comes in one ear and goes up the other ear.”

A Facebook page for Project YYC has listed a website called recallgondekyyc.ca, while Johnston’s website is recallmayorgondek.com — although the two of them showcase similar content, including a calendar of upcoming events and a map of where Calgarians can sign the recall petition.

The growing support prompted Gondek to sit down with Johnston for a conversation about his concerns, a chat Johnston has called cordial, in which they shared common ground but where he also brought up what he felt was a lack of accountability from her.

The rising interest also led people to erect signs across the city advocating for citizens to sign the petition, several of which were big enough to require a permit.

However, the signs didn’t have a permit, the city said, after police investigated an incident in which two women changed a sign saying “Recall Gondek” to “Respect Gondek.”

Johnston denied involvement in the signs and said he was unaware of who installed them.

“If there’s a permit required, then obviously whoever installed those should pull a permit for them,” he said in a previous interview.

The city’s statement on Friday said officials have removed nearly 2,000 non-compliant signs of all kinds since January.

Project YYC criticized the city’s justification in a statement.

“It’s disappointing but not surprising that Mayor Gondek is now using the strong arm of city authority to intimidate petition gatherers and now, just twelve days before the end of the campaign, to order the removal of the campaign signs lawfully erected across Calgary,” stated John Williams, a director of Project YYC.

Johnston said he has gathered around 44,000 signatures so far.

“I thought it was just gonna be me collecting signatures,” he added. “My original goal was 5,000 signatures.”

— With files from Scott Strasser and Steven Wilhelm