Grassroots group pushing to recall Okanagan MLA Tara Armstrong

The Recall Tara Armstrong campaign is underway and there are some important details to know about the process to oust the controversial Okanagan MLA.

People have been calling for Armstrong’s resignation and recall for months, including Premier David Eby. Wilbur Turner is one of her constituents and the president of Advocacy Canada, and he’s getting the ball rolling.

“I decided it was time to do it, especially after hearing the Premier state in the legislature last week that he would support anybody who initiated a recall because he was sure that the people who voted for her didn’t know that this was her agenda,” he said.

A Facebook Group dedicated to the recall campaign has more than 390 members, and an official website is up and running. He said they have already signed up 50 volunteers to go around collecting signatures.

“There’s over 500 people on the mailing list as well. It’s really taking off,” Turner said.

The recall petition can be filed on April 20, 2026, or 18 months after a general election.

A recall petition requires signatures from over 40 per cent of eligible, registered voters in a given district. In Armstrong’s district that’s about 18,000 signatures. The signatures have to be collected in person within 60 days of the petition’s approval.

There has never been a successful recall campaign for an MLA in B.C. and that could be due to the challenges with meeting the requirements to oust a politician from office. A few recall campaigns have gotten close, but they failed because not all of the signatures collected were valid or in one case the MLA resigned before the petition process was complete.

Armstrong has sparked outrage since she left the BC Conservatives to join the new One BC party, which has campaigned against First Nations and transgender youth.

She also came under fire for getting a significant pay raise for becoming the house leader for the new party.

“It’s (Armstrong’s) focus on punching down minorities. It seems to be all about Indigenous sovereignty… you know, land acknowledgements, about teaching kids in schools our history, our accurate history. It’s about denying the lived experience of survivors of residential schools,” Turner previously said. “It’s about the gender affirming care ban bill, which is actually the most horrific bill that’s ever been presented in Canada against trans people.”

Turner said it’s important to get the campaign going now because of the 60-day window to collect signatures.

“We need basically an army of people ready to go to do canvassing,” he said.

There has already been some pushback online against the recall campaign from One BC supporters.

“All publicity is good publicity, so I’m thanking them for actually sharing the website and the Facebook group. I think it’s awesome,” Turner said.

Elections BC has a webpage here that answers questions about recall petitions.