Poilievre Facing 90 Contenders in Carleton Riding Targeted by Longest Ballot Movement

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault displays a long ballot with 91 candidates used in a previous byelection during an appearance at a House of Commons committee on Nov. 21, 2024. House of Commons/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Voters heading to the polls in the Ottawa riding held by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre since 2004 will have to navigate an unusually large ballot in the upcoming election.

An electoral reform group known as the Longest Ballot Committee has targeted Poilievre’s Carleton riding, resulting in 91 candidates appearing on the preliminary list released by Elections Canada.

Candidates had until April 7 to file their paperwork with Elections Canada to run in the April 28 federal election.

The longest ballot movement is against Canada’s first-past-the-post system, in which the party winning a riding takes all, with the voice of voters choosing other parties not being represented. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised to reform this electoral system but didn’t follow through.

After announcing his intention to step down in early January, Trudeau said one of his biggest regrets was not completing this reform.

“I do wish that we'd been able to change the way we elect our governments in this country so that people could choose a second choice or a third choice on the same ballot,” he said.

The longest ballot movement has links to the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, a satirical party founded in 1963.

One of its candidates, Donovan Eckstrom, initially said in early January the ballot campaign would target the ridings of Carleton and University-Rosedale, held by Liberal cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland, in the next election.

The plan to have dozens of candidates run in Freeland’s riding has been dropped. The Epoch Times contacted the Longest Ballot Committee for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Eckstrom, who promoted the campaign, is running under the Rhino banner in the Grande Prairie riding in Alberta. Former leader of the Rhino Party, Sébastien CoRhino, whose original last name is Corriveau, is running in Poilievre’s Carleton riding.

The official agent in the Carleton riding for CoRhino is Tomas Szuchewycz, who is also behind all the several dozen candidates running as Independent or without affiliation. The role of the official agent is to manage the campaign’s finances and report them to Elections Canada.

The Conservative Party of Canada was contacted for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Accessibility Concerns

The movement striving to flood ballots with candidates started in the 2021 election and was involved in recent byelections, leading to delays in vote tallying.

The ballot for the byelection in the Lasalle-Émard-Verdun in September 2024 had 91 names and was a metre long.

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault raised concerns about the protest movement during an appearance before a House of Commons committee in November 2024. He urged committee members to consider accessibility issues caused by the protest.

“Just imagine the difficulties faced by a voter who has any form of disability or literacy barrier or who can’t easily handle this type of ballot,” Perrault said. He added that a ballot with additional candidates would require him to reduce the font size on the ballot, making it harder for individuals with literacy barriers or disabilities.

Perrault was testifying before the House committee on the matter of Bill C-65, which sought to amend the Canada Elections Act.

The bill, which died on the order paper when Trudeau prorogued Parliament in early January, sought to bring down the number of signatures required for a candidate to run in a federal election from 100 to 75.

Perrault said he supported the proposal but that the signatures requirement should not be “rendered meaningless.” He said nomination papers for participants in the longest ballot movement had “largely identical signatures.” Perrault said this means signatories are not supporting a specific candidate, but rather the idea of having large ballots.

The Chief Electoral Officer had proposed an amendment to the bill to ensure voters can only sign nomination papers in support of a single candidate.