Poilievre Calls for Reforms to Block Long Ballot Protests as Byelection Candidates Top 160

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is asking the federal government to introduce changes to Canada’s election rules to make it harder for protest groups to flood ridings with inauthentic candidates.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a July 22 letter to Liberal House leader Steve MacKinnon that the Longest Ballot Committee protest movement is confusing voters and undermining democracy after it signed up more than 100 candidates to run in next month’s byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot riding, where Poilievre is seeking to regain a seat in the House of Commons.

The letter, signed by Poilievre and Tory MP Michael Cooper, who is his party’s shadow minister for democratic reform, says reforms are needed to protect Canada’s democratic system.

The letter noted the Longest Ballot Committee “has once again declared its intent to flood the ballot – this time with over 200 names in the Battle River-Crowfoot by-election.”

“This is not democracy in action,” the letter reads. “It is a deliberate attempt to manipulate the rules, confuse voters, and undermine confidence in our elections.” 

The deadline for candidates to apply to run in the riding is July 28, and the byelection will be held Aug. 18. As of July 22, at least 169 candidates had registered to run in the Alberta riding.

The Longest Ballot Committee had targeted Poilievre’s previous Carleton riding in the recent general election, where he faced off against more than 90 candidates. Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy won the Carleton seat with 50.9 percent of the vote. 

The Longest Ballot Committee is against the first-past-the-post system and say they want electoral reform. Tomas Szucheqycz, who was the official agent for candidates put forward by the committee in Carleton is filling the same role in Battle River-Crowfoot. The committee is linked to the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, a satirical party established in 1963.

Changes Requested

Poilievre’s letter requests that the Carney government “take immediate steps” to put forward legislation when Parliament reconvenes in September to require that candidates get signatures from a minimum of 0.5 percent of the riding to file a candidacy, instead of just 100 people. It also asks that signatories for a candidate only be allowed to endorse one candidate, and that official agents be restricted “to representing only one single election candidate at any given time.”

Earlier this month, a petition with 31,840 signatures was put forward in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Ned Kuruc of Hamilton, Ont., aimed at stopping “mass candidacies” which it says “disrupt” the electoral process. 

Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault also said last year in House testimony that the tiny font sizes and massive lists on long ballots make it hard for voters with literacy or vision impairment to vote. Perrault was giving testimony before the House on Bill C-65 which proposed to change the Canada Election Action to allow candidates to run with only 75 signatures. The bill failed to pass when Parliament was prorogued in January of this year. 

The Longest Ballot Committee did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.