Genevieve Ring has never met Vernon-Monashee NDP MLA Harwinder Sandhu.
But, Ring wants Sandu gone as the riding's MLA.
"This is the way to stand up to government," said Ring, who's lived in Vernon for 22 years and owns and operates Loreto Strata Management.
"Me and a lot of people in Vernon don't like the way the government is governing. We're against the (COVID) vaccine mandate for health care workers and were against the government enforcement of (pandemic) mandates. We may not have to wear masks now, but (Dr.) Bonnie (Henry, provincial health officer) has already said there may be more mandates in the fall. So, this is the perfect time to be doing this petition."
Ring prompted Elections BC to issue a recall petition targeting Sandhu, effective Friday.
If the petition is successful, Sandhu would lose her job as MLA and a byelection would be called, in which she could run for re-election, if she wants.
"I will not be intimidated by a small group of extreme activists who do not represent the vast majority of people in Vernon-Monashee," said Sandhu, who worked as a nurse at Vernon Jubilee Hospital before being elected MLA in 2020.
"As a health care worker, I stand behind the decisions we made as a government to help keep British Columbians and frontline workers healthy and safe during the pandemic. I will not let any distraction take away from my work and commitment to the people I serve."
Under the Recall and Initiative Act, any registered voter in BC can apply to have a recall petition issued for their riding.
They must submit an application form, a $50 processing fee and a statement of 200 words or less on why they feel the MLA should be ousted.
Applications are approved if the legislated criteria is met.
Elections BC does not have discretion to evaluate applications on any other criteria.
As of Friday, Ring, and any other canvassers she registers with Elections BC, have 60 days to collect signatures from 40% or more of voters eligible to sign the petition in order to trigger a byelection in Vernon-Monashee.
To get 40%, the petition would have to secure signatures from 21,268 of the 53,169 registered voters in Vernon-Monashee at the time of the last provincial election in 2020 when Sandhu won the seat.
"That's a lot of signatures," admits Elections BC communications advisor Melanie Hull.
"It will take a concerted effort by the proponent of the recall."
Signatures have to be signed in-person, meaning no signatures collected online or no signatures gathered electronically in any way.
Since the Recall and Initiative Act came into force in 1995 there have been 26 recall petitions.
"There's never been a successful recall in that time," said Hull.
Of the 26 petitions, only six were returned to Elections BC for verification.
Of the six, five did not have enough valid signatures and one was halted during verification when the MLA resigned.
The MLA who quit was Liberal Paul Reitsma in Parksville-Qualicum in 1999 after he was caught submitting letters to the editor under phoney names.
Former Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell, the MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey, was the target of two recall petitions, in 1998 and 2003.
Both went nowhere because the petitions were never submitted to Elections BC for verification.
In fact, that's what's happened with recall petitions historically -- they fail because they are never submitted to Elections BC for verification, usually because they don't have enough signatures.
Despite such a track record, Ring said: "I'm very confident we can get 21,268 signatures. This is just the beginning. I have lots of people who want to help collect signatures and a lot of people in Vernon feel the government is a broken system."
Ring expects herself and most canvassers will go door-to-door to collect signatures as well as approach organizations with members who might want to sign the petition.
If submitted, Elections BC has 42 days to verify signatures on the petition and declare it failed or successful.
If the petition is successful, the MLA loses their job and the seat becomes vacant and a byelection is called within 90 days.
The recalled MLA can run as a candidate in the byelection if they want to.
The next provincial election is scheduled for the fall of 2024.
If it comes to a byelection, Ring hopes someone runs as an independent on an anti-government-enforcement-
"MLA who belong to parties do what the party tells them to do," said Ring.
"That system doesn't work."
