By Trent Wilkie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter in St. Albert
As teachers demonstrated outside the Alberta legislature during Premier Danielle Smith’s throne speech, Alberta’s chief electoral officer, Gordon McClure, approved a petition to recall Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.
The petition, put forward by Jennifer Yeremiy, has a signature collection period from Oct. 23, 2025, to Jan. 21, 2026. The number of required signatures for the petition to succeed is 16,006.
This number is derived from the mandatory 60 per cent of the total votes cast in the minister’s riding of Calgary-Bow in the most recent election. That number of votes was 26,676. During that election, Nicolaides received 13,175 votes while his NDP counterpart, Druh Farrell, received 12,552.
Yeremiy must now register canvassers for the area. The canvassers must be eligible electors who have lived in the Calgary-Bow electoral division for the previous three months prior to canvassing.
Currently, there are two other petitions involving the United Conservative Party. There is the Forever Canada petition by Thomas Lukaszuk that is coming close to the end of its run on Oct. 28. This petition’s goal is to make it official policy that Alberta remains part of Canada, countering separatist sentiment. The other is the Alberta Funds Public Schools petition by Alicia Taylor. This petition is aimed at potentially triggering a referendum on ending public funding for private schools in Alberta. It has until Feb. 11, 2026, to collect 293,976 signatures.
This story from The Canadian Press first published on Oct. 27, 2025.