Group waiting for ‘winning window’ to launch recall against local MLA

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“She basically campaigned on focusing on important matters like housing, healthcare, economics, supporting seniors, and she really hasn’t done any of that work at all. She’s been more focused on her own brand of politics, which has come out as being more to do with culture wars and ideology than actually the important things that people care about.”

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Armstrong did not participate in any candidate forums or speak to media ahead of the election, and Turner said she had not been available to her constituents since being elected either, and that they needed someone in office who could be held accountable. 

The group could have submitted an application to Elections B.C. as of April 20, but they have decided to wait until the timing was right for them before officially launching the recall.

“There’s never been a successful recall campaign in B.C. and I strongly feel that part of that is that a strong campaign team hasn’t been developed in order to be successful,” Turner explained.

“Our core team on the campaign has been strategizing on how best to work towards having a successful campaign and one of the elements of that is having a very large number of trained canvassers, and those canvassers also have to be registered with Elections B.C., they can’t just be some random person, they have to be someone who’s vetted in terms of their eligibility.”

The Recall Tara Armstrong group had already gathered over 400 volunteers as of time of publication, but once the petition is launched the group will have 60 days to collect signatures from 40 per cent of the eligible voters in the riding, which is equivalent to over 18,000 signatures. Turner felt they needed more people involved as the riding is quite spread out and canvassing to get that many signatures will require a lot of manpower, adding there was also a window of time they were waiting for before going door-to-door.

“We’re aiming toward having the signing period in the late-summer or early-fall. Part of that strategy is also in recognition of the fact that over the summer kids are out of school and people are travelling, on holidays, and doing a lot of outdoor activities, so there are going to be people away and that affects the campaign team as well as the people who are eligible to sign the petition,” Turner told Vernon Matters.

“We want to have a winning window of time, because it’s a very short period of just 60 days, so having a team powered up and ready to go and doing it at the optimal time in terms of availability of the team and voters.”

The group were still looking for more volunteers and financial contributions for the recall efforts, with more information at their website.

An application to recall Dallas Brodie, the founder of One B.C. and MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena, had been approved with the 60 day canvassing period set to begin Thursday, May 21. However, Turner told Vernon Matters that campaign had nothing to do with their own and would not spur on their efforts.

Turner added he hopes this recall not only removes her from office but also inspirsd people to research their candidates more in the future and elect someone who can stay true to the values they campaigned on.

“I think it’s super important that people realize that when they don’t engage before an election, they just vote for someone based on the colour of their signs, that they’re not doing themselves any favours,” Turner said.

“It’s really important people understand the individual stances of politicians when they choose them.”