Date Published:
April 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Recall

Recall, a constitutional device whereby an elected representative in the legislature may, on petition of a fixed number of his constituents, be compelled to submit himself for re-election before his term of office expires. It is a device borrowed from the United States, where it is in force in some states; but the only province in Canada to adopt it has been Alberta, which passed legislation instituting the recall in 1935. It is, however, a device wholly alien to the British constitutional practice, which regards the representative of a constituency not as a delegate, but as a free agent.

Source  : W. Stewart Wallace, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. V, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 401p., p. 228.