No relationship with recall petition organizer, says Lethbridge-East MLA

During a year-end interview with LNN, he stated that some members of the public have been utilizing the Recall Act in an activist effort to try to oust the UCP from government.

“I think many are starting to realize that this is not the intent of the legislation,” says Neudorf. “There’s a lot more axes to grind, so to speak, and it’s not indicative – the very fact that there’s now an NDP MLA now on the list, and they’re technically part of the government, shows that this has gone beyond what was reasonably expected.”

Neudorf explains that the Recall Act was only meant to be used in cases of serious misconduct and feels that most of the active petitions are not about that.

It remains to be seen how many, if any, of the recall efforts will be successful, but it does worry him.

“To be honest, it does weigh on my mind. I think it weighs on everyone’s mind. It takes a lot of emotional energy, and if it were to be successful, I think that’s very disruptive for everyone, and at the very least, it is a significant distraction,” says Neudorf.

Nathan Neudorf on the toll that the recall petition takes.

He says he is proud of being a champion of the people and of industry, and that he has done a lot of good work for the city and for Alberta.

Neudorf was even voted “Alberta’s Hardest Working MLA” by the UCP caucus in 2020.

A controversial element of the petition against Neudorf is its organizer, Ryan Tanner.

He wrote in his petition application that “Recent voting activity from him demonstrates a disconnect and his inability to meet the needs, desires, and expectations of those he represents. We need a leader who meets these responsibilities.”

Petition organizers have 90 days to collect a certain number of signatures in order to move on to a recall vote. For Lethbridge-East, Tanner would need to garner 13,207 signatures by February 23, 2026.

However, many people in the community who say they have tried to get a hold of Tanner, whether to simply ask about the recall effort or to get involved with it, have received no response. LNN, as well as several other local news outlets, have also not heard back from Tanner for interview requests.

This has led to some speculation on social media that Neudorf and Tanner might be working together to intentionally stall recall efforts.

Neudorf says that is not true, and he does not even know Tanner.

“Maybe I have met him, to be perfectly honest, but I’m not aware of it,” he explains. “Both in my current job and in my former job in construction, I meet thousands of people a year, so I couldn’t say definitively, but no, I don’t have a relationship with him in any way, and I’m not involved in any way in my own recall petition.”

Many of the recall petitions were started in response to the Alberta Government’s use of the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to put an end to the strike by around 51,000 teachers.

Neudorf says that, although there might have been other avenues the government could have taken in its approach to labour negotiations, it was warranted due to the risk that students were facing.

“We had to take a fairly significant step to resolve that, to make sure that our 751,000 students got back to school and didn’t have to repeat an entire year. Sometimes, you have to take the good with the bad, and we have to work through that,” says Neudorf. “There’s more work that needs to be done to restore that relationship.”

Nathan Neudorf on rebuilding the relationship with the public after the teachers’ strike.

For now, the MLA says he wants to focus on the job that the people of Lethbridge-East gave him, which is to represent them in government.

by David Opinko

No relationship with recall petition organizer, says Lethbridge-East MLA

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