On Friday, May 2, the reality of a by-election in the not-too-distant future in Battle River-Crowfoot arose when MP-elect Damien Kurek announced his intention to resign his seat so that Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre could seek election in the riding.
Poilievre lost his seat in the Carlton riding in Ontario last week, where he and another 89 candidates lost to Liberal Party candidate Bruce Fanjoy.
The 91-name ballot was 38.22 inches long, more than three feet long, and there were reports of needing “almost origami-level skills to re-fold it.”
Eighty-five of the candidates were reported to have signed up just a few days before the deadline, as part of a movement by an organization called ‘The Longest Ballot Committee.’
The group says it is attempting to draw attention to election reform, protesting the fact that the winning party writes the electoral laws, something they consider a conflict of interest.
Spokesperson for the group Donovan E. confirmed Tuesday that the group is hoping to smash the 91-candidate record, and is presently recruiting interested parties in the hopes of gaining 200 candidates for the future Battle River-Crowfoot byelection.
According to a release from the group, they say, “Given the most recent Battle River-Crowfoot results (81 per cent voted conservative) it looks like [Poilievre] will have no problem succeeding.
“Given the outpouring of interest, we will do our best to make a long ballot happen if we get at least 200 people signing up to be candidates.”
Every candidate in the riding needs 100 local voters to nominate them.
The group adds, “We do long ballots because politicians should not be in charge of election rules; there is an obvious conflict of interest.
“After all, what PM would change a system which brought them to power?”
Donovan E. said Tuesday, “The committee has a variety of ideas towards electoral reform, but ultimately we wish for a good faith look that doesn’t give up when the times get tough (looking at you, 2016 Electoral Reform Committee).”
The tie for longest ballot was a riding called LaSalle—Émard—Verdun and occurred during a federal by-election in 2024. Interestingly, in that by-election, a long-time Liberal seat changed to Conservative.
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor