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Dozens of candidates are on the ballot in the Ottawa riding as of April 7, most added over the weekend as part of an electoral protest.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in a file photograph. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA
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Voting just got a lot more complicated in the Carleton riding.
As of April 7, with just hours until the deadline to register in the federal election, 56 candidates were on the ballot in Carleton, something that will delay election night results in one of the most closely watched ridings in the country.
Elections Canada is even considering allowing advance poll votes to be counted earlier than normal on election day and is considering other measures to speed up the count. That includes bringing in extra teams to help with counting and conducting additional training sessions to help familiarize workers with the larger ballot, said a spokesperson for Elections Canada.
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Elections Canada said results would still be available on election night.
Over the weekend, 51 candidates, most of them listed as independents, were added to the voter list in Careleton. Each of them had the same official agent — Tomas Szuchewycz, who is affiliated with a group known as the Longest Ballot Committee.
In an email, Szuchewycz confirmed that the Longest Ballot Committee is behind the surge of candidates on the ballot in Carleton.
“Yes, the Longest Ballot Committee is responsible for the numerous candidates now registered. There are many more to come,” he said in an email.
The group, once affiliated with the Rhinoceros Party, floods ballots with a large number of independent candidates to protest the first-past-the-post voting system and other electoral reform issues.
“We do this to make the point that politicians should not be in charge of election rules because of the obvious conflict of interest. After all, what prime minister would change a system which brought them to power? We advocate for politicians to recuse themselves and pass decisions about election rules to a permanent, independent, and non-partisan body such as a citizens’ assembly,” Szuchewycz said.
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Fifty of the 51 new Carleton candidates for which Szuchewycz is the official agent are listed as independent. One is listed as a candidate with the Rhinoceros party. Szuchewycz, or someone with the same name, is listed on the University of Waterloo website as an undergrad student.
Until the Longest Ballot influx, five candidates were on the ballot in Carleton — including Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has represented Carleton since 2004, Liberal challenger Bruce Fanjoy, NDP candidate Beth Prokaska and Green Party candidate Mark Watson.
The riding that hugs the southern edge of Ottawa has been the focus of heightened attention during the campaign, in part because the Conservative party’s solid lead prior to the election all but vanished in the wake of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation and growing threats from the Trump administration. Some have suggested Poilievre’s seat could be at risk.
Szuchewycz said the actions are to make an important point.
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“It doesn’t cost money to be a candidate. My brother actually got rid of the old candidate wealth test in 2017 by going to court,” said Szuchewycz. “This is a great cause and I really hope MPs end this ridiculous conflict of interest because right now us voters are not served well when election rules are up to them.”
But Lori Tiurnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said the Longest Ballot’s argument doesn’t hold. “There is no logical connection between flooding a ballot with candidates and trying to make a point about first-past-the-post,” she said.
“They are trying to show the weakness in our democratic system. If anything, they are showing the integrity of our system. We are going to have people who will count every single ballot and it will be a fair election.”
Turnbull noted the act slows everything down and creates administrative headaches, although it is completely legal.
In 2024, Elections Canada was forced to make changes to the way ballots looked after the Longest Ballot Committee supported candidates in the Quebec byelection in LaSalle—Emard—Verdun bringing the total to a record-breaking 91.
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The Chief Electoral Officer has raised concerns over the impact of flooding ridings with candidates on the accessibility of the ballot.
Some critics say the political stunt acts as a voter suppression tool because it makes it more difficult — especially for people with visual impairment — to vote.
A spokesperson for Fanjoy’s campaign said they are confident the flooded ballot will not affect his campaign, notin that his name is well known in Carleton “because he has been knocking on doors for two years.”
Poilievre’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.
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