While there is disagreement on whether Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek deserves to be recalled — or whether that option should even be available — most people appear to agree that this effort has virtually no chance of succeeding.

This tool exists on paper, but if the bar is set too high then it may as well not exist in the first place. That doesn’t necessarily mean lowering the bar to the point that we’re drowning in recall petitions and endless votes, but there are some relatively simple adjustments that could be made.

It’s been almost three years since the Alberta government passed Bill 52, which gave voters the ability to remove an elected official in between elections. Alberta wasn’t the first province to do so — B.C. has long had voter recall legislation, although no recall attempt there has been successful.

Unlike in B.C., though, Alberta’s law extends to elected officials at both the provincial and local levels. What’s interesting and........

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