Poilievre calls over 100-candidate protest ballot in by-election a “scam”

The Battle River–Crowfoot by-election ballot, where Poilievre hopes to re-enter Parliament, now has over 100 candidates and counting due to the efforts of a controversial election protest group.

Source: Facebook

The Battle River–Crowfoot by-election ballot, where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre hopes to re-enter Parliament, now has over 100 candidates and counting due to the efforts of a controversial election protest group.

According to the Elections Canada website, at the time of writing, 102 confirmed candidates are running in the by-election, with more expected before the August 18 vote. The Longest Ballot Committee is responsible for the record number of candidates and claims that additional names will be added.

The protest group registered 98 of the 102 candidates on the ballot, all under the same official agent, Tomas Szuchewycz.

The group was behind the previously historically significant 91-candidate ballot in Poilievre’s long-held Carleton riding, which he lost in the last election. Poilievre called the long ballot a “scam” and suggested changes to election laws via Parliament, a move the Longest Ballot Committee said only reinforces their drive to stack the ballot.

Of the 102 candidates, only five represent specific parties. Pierre Poilievre is running under the Conservative banner. Grant Abraham leads and represents the United Party of Canada, a party he founded. Michael Harris is the Libertarian Party candidate, and Jeff Willerton is running for the Christian Heritage Party. Bonnie Critchley, a veteran running as an independent alternative to Poilievre, is also on the ballot.

As reported by True North, the Chief Electoral Officer warned the Liberals to amend election laws to prevent ballot exploitation last year, and those concerns still remain. At the time, Elections Canada told True North the Elections Act doesn’t prevent a single official agent from registering multiple candidates and that Parliament would need to introduce new legislation to change that.

“There are ways you can fix this. We can simply, for example, say that everybody who gets on the ballot should have had 1,000 unique signatures for residents in the community, and that no one can sign such a petition twice,” Poilievre said last week at a Stettler town hall. “Either way, we have to take action because this is a scam. It is unfair, it is unjust and must stop.”

Critchley has written an open letter to the Longest Ballot Committee, saying their actions harm her legitimate independent campaign.

“Please don’t. Just don’t. This is Our Home, Our Riding. Please do not come here and muddy the waters further. While I am given to understand that your goal is to push for electoral change, this is not the place,” Critchley said in her letter addressing the activists. “You are going to Crush any Legitimate Independents who run. Your actions make it impossible for electors to be able to find anyone who isn’t attached to a party.”

She claimed the group’s goals for election reform were pushing people further into a party-driven system. The activist group claimed it would run ballots as long as it was legal to do so.

“I don’t have a massive team, I don’t have backing from millions of people. I have to go door-to-door within my community and explain to my neighbours that I have nothing to do with you,” she said. “Please do not bury me with your ‘legal’ election interference … Let the people of Battle River-Crowfoot fight for their right to be heard in Parliament, without getting tripped from the sidelines.”

The protest group, which operates primarily on the left-wing X alternative “Blue Sky” released a statement saying a committee such as theirs should be deciding election rules and not elected officials.

“When it comes to election law, politicians just have too much skin in the game to be calling the shots. There is a clear and inappropriate conflict of interest. After all, what Prime Minister would reform the system which brought them to power?” the group said. “This ill-conceived and self-serving electoral reform proposal by the leader of the opposition is downright dangerous, and reinforces our conviction that politicians are not well suited to decide the rules of their own elections.”

Abraham, the leader of the relatively new United Party of Canada, told True North that the longest ballot agenda was “simply visual noise” designed to obfuscate and frustrate the administration of democracy. He said the ballot would drive electors to “mere name recognition,” rather than the merit of the campaign’s candidates, which he argues benefits only Poilievre.

Abraham stated he was running a pro-Western separatist campaign against the CPC, believing the Conservatives had failed to “conserve” Canada’s security, economy, family values, and parental authority, as well as to defend life and challenge post-nationalism, foreign interference, and The Great Reset.

“Poilievre wants to continue equalization and stop discussions about Alberta sovereignty,” Abraham added. “Within the context of a dysfunctional, failing Canada, Alberta needs to leave to reforge this nation.”

Libertarian candidate Harris, also running a pro-separatist campaign and against anti-free market policies such as supply management, told True North that the long ballot was a “gimmick that clogs up the election process and hurts serious independent and third-party candidates.”

“When you have dozens of novelty names crowding the list, it dilutes voter focus and makes the election feel like a circus,” Harris said.