Bell: Dump Gondek petition guy gets meeting with Calgary Mayor Gondek

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Who would have thunk it?

David gets to sit down with Goliath.

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Circle your calendar. March 22. 15 minutes.

Landon Johnston, the man who calls himself a regular guy and knows all about air conditioners and furnaces but admits he knows squat about the blood sport of politics, started up a petition to dump Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

Well, no matter how many Dump Gondek signatures he gets by the end of the month the man who is taking on the Calgary city hall Goliath has at least got the mayor’s attention.

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Johnston says he’s got a few questions to ask Gondek in the 15 minutes.

He plans to ask one tough puzzler so, if you’re reading this Mayor Gondek, here it is.

How many signatures is it going to take for you to resign as mayor?

The recall petition point man does add Gondek spoke to him briefly and told him she really wished he’d talked to her before launching the petition.

Johnston says he tried to go through proper channels and failed.

Anyway, where is he at with the petition?

He figures and estimates the petition drive has gathered around 100,000 signatures.

Let’s be clear.

The recall petition point man says he got that number based on the number of petition sheets he’s already got back and numbers provided by people who have petitions still out but who have not sent them back yet.

Then there are groups who have some petitions and they’ve told him what they’ve got so far.

There are many who will be skeptics with that big a number and without all the petitions actually submitted.

We shall see in a few weeks what the arithmetic looks like.

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Johnston sounds very confident about the math and he’s working his butt off.

He also says there are now hundreds of volunteers who will start knocking on doors by the weekend.

Hundreds? Yes, he says hundreds.

There is now a Twitter or X account with updates. It’s @recallgondekyyc.

There is also the website recallmayorgondek.com with lots of info.

When asked, Johnston says this petition stuff has put a lot on his plate.

“It’s been insanely stressful,” he says.

“It’s not my skill set. My skill set is finding problems and fixing them.”

He is kind of trying to fix a problem here but I get what he means.

Then there are people who shout at him and give him a rough time.

One guy said there should be a petition against the petition guy.  There’s always one in the crowd.

There are also the familiar types who say they don’t like Gondek but don’t think the petition will do anything.

So they do nothing.

You have to shake your head. How much of a commitment does it take to sign a petition?

Then again, we all know the ugly statistics.

Gondek won the last election. Won all 14 wards.

And where were all those folks who swore up and down they wanted big change at city hall?

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Obviously, not enough of them showed up at the ballot box.

Fewer than half the eligible voters in the city got off their butts. That is not the sign of a change election.

Johnston gets it.

“That’s why we’re stuck with this mayor. Nobody did anything. I’m trying to encourage people to use their voice.”

And bellyaching over coffee or firing off a letter to the editor isn’t going to cut it.

On the bright side Johnston says he didn’t realize so many people were on the same page as him.

They’ve also had it up to here with the mayor.

Even folks from other parts of Alberta want to sign.

Johnston says he will now try to work on individuals who don’t want Gondek but are still sitting on the fence.

“We just need enough signatures so she knows her political career is dead,” he says.

Some of the frustration with Gondek goes over the line.

“I find I’m defending the mayor from personal attacks. That’s not what this is about. This is about her policies.

“I don’t know her personally. She could be a nice person. She could be a horrible person. I’m just attacking her policies.”

Nottingham’s Pub is a great neighbourhood pub in Silver Springs in the northwest of the city.

They are one of many locations who have the Dump Gondek petition.

This pub has around 500 signatures on their petition sheets.

David Moore is the pub owner and he is not afraid to speak his mind.

Why is the petition behind his bar?

“I’m tired of tyranny. Someone has to stand up. It’s something I’ve always done,” says Moore.

Why does he want Gondek gone?

“Because she’s not representing the people. She’s extremely dismissive.

“She definitely has an agenda and it’s not Calgary’s agenda and I think that’s obvious.”

rbell@postmedia.com

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