The recall campaign to remove independent Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong from office will never come to fruition, but her opponents aren’t angry, not one little bit.

The Recall Tara Armstrong campaign has been in the works for almost a year, and now the organizers won’t get a chance to file their petition because Premier David Eby called a snap election on Tuesday. The campaign managed to organize dozens of volunteers and raise thousands of dollars.

John Plant, one of the recall organizers, said he’s relieved.

“We’re very happy because we don’t have to carry on,” he said. “A successful recall campaign was going to be a lot of work and was going to be very challenging for us to do with the resources that are available.”

The recall campaign came together because Armstrong’s constituents weren’t happy with how she has represented the riding, from avoiding public appearances to her numerous controversies.

A recall petition allows voters to remove an MLA from office and force a byelection. The petition succeeds if 40 per cent of eligible voters sign it in person within 60 days of the petition being filed.

There has never been a successful recall petition in BC history. Plant said the snap election is a much shorter path to getting Armstrong out of office.

“Our objective, as we’ve said, is that she’s no longer representing this riding. That is a very high probability now, and we will be out supporting other candidates,” he said.

Due to election regulations, Plant said the campaign won’t be donating the money it raised to another candidate and it won’t be giving out its volunteer contact list to another party either.

“We’ve got website costs and things like that that we’ve got to cover, but then the other money is going to be donated to local charities,” he said.

“We are encouraging people to get involved in the municipal election and the provincial election as volunteers, asking questions of candidates, all these things which are important for democracy.”

The biggest unanswered question is whether or not Armstrong will run in the election. So far, she hasn’t officially declared her intention and hasn’t responded to iNFOnews.ca’s requests for comment.

Armstrong was elected as a BC Conservative, then left the party and co-founded OneBC. She was later kicked out of OneBC to sit as an Independent.

If Armstrong does decide to run she’ll be up against BC Conservative candidate Pavneet Singh. The BC NDP have yet to announce a candidate for the riding.

Provincial election day is Saturday, Oct. 24.