Latest news with #Poilievre
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Pierre's riding to lose': candidates in Alberta byelection get together for debate
CAMROSE — Pierre Poilievre was greeted with cheers and applause by the hundreds of Albertans who showed up to watch a two-and-a-half-hour political debate on a sunny Tuesday evening in July. The Camrose and District Chamber of Commerce hosted a candidates' forum featuring 10 of the people who are vying to represent Battle River—Crowfoot in the Aug. 18 byelection. "My mission here is to give national leadership to the issues that are of local importance," Poilievre told the sold-out crowd. The Conservative leader is widely expected to win the sprawling eastern Alberta riding, which is considered one of the safest Tory seats in the country. Damien Kurek won more than 82 per cent of the vote in the April election. He resigned to allow Poilievre, who lost his own seat in the Ottawa riding of Carleton, the chance to return to the House of Commons in the fall. A crowd of Poilievre's supporters was outside the venue before things got underway, many carrying signs with his name. Inside, the signs had to be put away. The moderator kept a tight schedule, cutting off the microphones of anyone who ran over their allotted time as the candidates answered a range of questions submitted by the public about the economy, health care privatization, electoral reform and immigration. The candidates seated at a long table on a stage occasionally took aim at Poilievre, particularly for the fact that he does not live in the riding. Liberal candidate Darcy Spady introduced himself by saying, "I'm from Three Hills, and I don't want to be prime minister" — a line that elicited chuckles from the crowd and from Poilievre when he repeated it. Spady said he wanted to bring local issues to the government caucus. Poilievre argued that electing the leader of a political party is a trade-off — leaders are on the road much of the time, he said. "The other side, though, is that leader can bring a very powerful megaphone to the local issues of the community," he added. Independent candidate Bonnie Critchley pointed out in her closing statement that several candidates, including Poilievre, won't be able to vote in the byelection because they don't live in the riding. "I firmly believe that Mr. Poilievre is too busy with his personal ambitions to give a rat's backside about us," Critchley said in her closing statement. She got loud cheers from the crowd earlier in the evening as she argued for local representation. "If you want to run for an area, you need to live here. This longest ballot crap, that's got to stop," she said. More than 200 candidates were signed up to run in the byelection as of Tuesday, most of whom were sponsored by the Longest Ballot Committee protest group. The group says it's trying to get attention for electoral reform, arguing that Canada needs to end the first-past-the-post system. As a result of the protest, Elections Canada has decided that voters will write in the name of their selected candidate on a modified ballot in the byelection, rather than selecting from a list of 200. The longest ballot group signed up 85 people to run in Carleton during the April election, and ran dozens of candidates in byelections last summer. Poilievre called the Longest Ballot Committee "a total scam that must be stopped," and pledged that if he's elected, he will put forward legislative changes to ensure it doesn't happen again. In opening and closing statements, a number of candidates said Ottawa takes advantage of Alberta and pledged to try to end equalization. Several expressed sympathy for the growing Alberta separatist movement. There was broad agreement from candidates that Canada needs to pull back on immigration and "take care of our own." "We must have more people leaving than coming over the next several years as we bring down our population," Poilievre said. Green Party candidate Ashley MacDonald and the NDP's Katherine Swampy disagreed, calling immigration one of the country's strengths. Critchley and fellow Independent candidate Sarah Spanier made pitches to voters that they would hold a powerful position as Independent MPs in a minority government, and would leverage that to help the riding. The forum also featured candidates from the People's Party of Canada, the Libertarian Party, the Christian Heritage Party and the United Party of Canada. "I think we all know this is Pierre's riding to lose here; he's definitely going to win," MacDonald said in his closing statement. "So please, take a chance." — by Fakiha Baig in Camrose, Alta., and Sarah Ritchie in Ottawa This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2025. The Canadian Press
CBC
8 hours ago
- Politics
- CBC
Debate underway for candidates vying for seat in Alberta byelection featuring Poilievre
Ten candidates vying to represent Battle River-Crowfoot in the House of Commons are debating tonight in the riding's largest municipality. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is among the candidates at the event being hosted by the Camrose & District Chamber of Commerce ahead of the Aug. 18 byelection. Poilievre is looking to win in the sprawling eastern Alberta riding after he lost his long-held Ottawa seat of Carleton in the April general election. The writ was dropped last month after Conservative Damien Kurek, who handily won the seat in the April vote, stepped down so Poilievre could run. About 210 candidates were registered to run as of Monday on Elections Canada's website, including Liberal candidate Darcy Spady, the NDP's Katherine Swampy, Independent Bonnie Critchley and dozens of others sponsored by the Longest Ballot Committee protest group. WATCH | The longest ballot in federal election history with a twist: The longest ballot in federal election history with a twist 1 day ago With more than 200 names now in the running in Alberta's Battle River–Crowfoot byelection, voters now won't actually be scanning a long piece of paper to mark an "x" beside their preferred candidate. They will, however, need to come prepared because they'll be writing the name of the candidate they're voting for by hand. Elections Canada says adapted ballots requiring electors to write out the name of their preferred pick will be available at polls given the unusually long list of candidates.
Calgary Herald
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Chris Selley: There are easy solutions to the 'longest ballot' problem, so let's end it now
Article content There are many irritating things about the Longest Ballot Committee, the group of self-styled democratic reformers that stacks high-profile ridings with scores of candidates who aren't really running for office, with the aim of creating ludicrously enormous paper ballots. It's completely incoherent, first and foremost. Article content The long-balloters want to take electoral-reform decisions like proportional representation out of politicians' hands and give the authority over to some 'citizens' assembly.' They believe politicians ought to 'recuse' themselves from such decisions, because they're in an inherent conflict of interest. Article content Article content Even if you agree, which you should not, it escapes me how packing the Battle River—Crowfoot byelection on Aug. 18 with 199 essentially fake candidates says anything about that daft citizens' assembly idea one way or the other. Indeed, among the chief complainants against the longest-balloters are legitimate independent candidates, people who are actually campaigning and trying to make a point, who tend to get lost among scores of other 'fake' candidates who aren't affiliated with a political party. And for what? Article content Article content The most annoying thing, though, and a very Canadian thing, is that people have been talking about what to do about this movement since it first became a minor menace at least three years ago … and nothing has been done, despite some pretty obvious solutions sitting there waiting to be adopted. Article content Conservative Leader and Battle River—Crowfoot candidate Pierre Poilievre, among others, has suggested not allowing electors to sign the nomination papers of more than one candidate. (The longest-balloters generally use mostly the same collection of signatures for all their fake candidates. You need 100 to qualify to run.) That's an entirely reasonable proposal. The returning officer in each riding is supposed to check that the names and addresses attached to those signatures are above board; it should not be difficult to notice when duplicates come up. Article content Article content That alone would make the 'scam,' as Poilievre calls it, much more time-consuming for the scammers — and without jacking up the number of signatures required to run, or requiring candidates to live in the riding in question, or other measures that otherwise might be contentious. Maybe the longest-balloters would adapt and find even more obnoxious methods. Trolls tend to do that. But at the very least, it is worth a try. Article content Article content All that said, Elections Canada — which is not always known for excellent decision-making — hatched a very simple and effective solution for the Battle River—Crowfoot byelection: Instead of marking your X on a ballot as long as a beach towel, you will write down your chosen candidate's name. (Elections Canada assures us spelling errors and such will be treated generously.) Article content Perhaps it's not ideal to have different ballot procedures in different ridings — though the Longest Ballot Committee generally only targets one riding per election — but it's tough to imagine a serious, cogent objection to this idea. If you can read the candidate's name, you ought to be able to write it down as well. I quite like the idea of driving home to voters that they're voting for individuals who belong to parties, not for the parties themselves.
Toronto Star
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Electoral reform, dinosaurs and ‘spite': the ‘Longest Ballot' protest, explained
OTTAWA - More than 200 candidates are running in the Battle River-Crowfoot byelection, though only a handful have the support of official parties. Most of the rest are linked to a protest movement that's looking to change the way elections are conducted in the country. The front-runner in the race, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, is seeking a path back to the House of Commons after losing his Ottawa-area riding in the last federal election. Poilievre has attacked the Longest Ballot Committee's efforts to stack the ballot with a large number of candidates as a 'blatant abuse' of democracy.
Winnipeg Free Press
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Electoral reform, dinosaurs and ‘spite': the ‘Longest Ballot' protest, explained
OTTAWA – More than 200 candidates are running in the Battle River-Crowfoot byelection, though only a handful have the support of official parties. Most of the rest are linked to a protest movement that's looking to change the way elections are conducted in the country. The front-runner in the race, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, is seeking a path back to the House of Commons after losing his Ottawa-area riding in the last federal election. Poilievre has attacked the Longest Ballot Committee's efforts to stack the ballot with a large number of candidates as a 'blatant abuse' of democracy. Here's what the Longest Ballot Committee says it wants, what its opponents say needs to change and how Elections Canada is planning to handle the Aug. 18 vote. Why are these protests happening? The Longest Ballot Committee is pushing for electoral reform, arguing that Canada must move beyond the first-past-the-post system to something that would better reflect the wishes of voters. The Longest Ballot Committee was responsible for adding 85 of the 91 names on the ballot in Poilievre's former riding of Carleton in the last federal election. While Poilievre lost that seat to a Liberal after holding it for nearly two decades, none of the Longest Ballot candidates got more than 57 votes. The group says it's trying to draw the public's attention to the need for electoral reform and has run dozens of candidates in multiple byelections in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba since 2022. What do the Longest Ballot Committee candidates promise? The Longest Ballot Committee candidates are — no surprise — promising electoral reform. Some have been going off-script, however. One Longest Ballot Committee candidate in Battle River-Crowfoot has a website that simply says they're running 'out of spite.' 'If you only get to vote once, vote for the person who isn't a politician,' the website for Abel Erazo-Ibarra says. Another for Nicola Zoghbi promises 'dinosaurs for everyone.' 'My first move as MP will be to rename the electoral district Raptor River—Crowfoot, in honour of the velociraptors that once terrorized the Albertan plains,' Zoghbi's website says. Zoghbi — apparently a Spielberg fan — is also vowing to lobby Universal to open a Jurassic Park-style theme park in the riding where 'visitors from all over the world will flock — like pterodactyls' to 'relive the adventures of Dr. Alan Grant and the other poor souls who had the (mis) fortune of seeing the dinosaurs up close.' Lori Turnbull, a political-science professor at Dalhousie University, said that while electoral reform is a worthwhile cause, the long ballot protests are alienating voters. 'Federal elections are supposed to be serious events. It's a serious decision to decide who is going to represent you,' she said. 'These people aren't looking to get elected — they're looking to make a point. That's going to depreciate the integrity of democracy and the overall sense that the election is serious and it means something.' What does the legislation say? To run as a candidate in a federal election, one must be a Canadian citizen at least 18 years old on election day and must secure signatures from at least 100 people in the riding. If the riding is larger or remote, the minimum signature requirement drops to 50. What are people proposing to end long ballots? Poilievre and Conservative MP Michael Cooper are pitching changes to the elections rules that would increase the required number of nomination signatures to 0.5 per cent of the population in a riding, rather than 100 people. According to 2021 Census data, that means a candidate in Toronto Centre would need nearly 600 signatures, while a candidate in Malpeque, P.E.I. would need 192. Poilievre and Cooper are also proposing that each of those signatures be exclusive to a candidate, and that official agents be barred from representing more than one candidate at any given time. Asked whether the government is considering those changes, a spokesperson for House leader Steven MacKinnon said the government 'shares the concerns' about long ballots and is 'examining the issue.' Turnbull said that while long ballots may cause frustration for candidates and those working the polls, the solution isn't to rewrite Canada's election laws. She said Longest Ballot Committee candidates don't receive a large enough share of the vote to affect elections in any meaningful way, beyond the administrative burdens they impose on Elections Canada. She also worries that requiring candidates to collect a higher number of signatures might freeze out serious Independent challengers like Bonnie Critchley, who is running against Poilievre in Battle River-Crowfoot. 'That's not a reasonable test to put on a serious, Independent candidate,' Turnbull said. How is Elections Canada planning to handle the byelection? Voters in Battle River-Crowfoot will be using an 'adapted ballot' that will have a blank space where electors can write in the name of their preferred candidate, replacing the typical list-style ballot. Sixteen candidates on the ballot have last names that are the same or similar. Most of them are candidates associated with the Longest Ballot Committee. 'As long as the elector's intention is clear, their vote will be counted, even if they misspell the candidate's name,' Elections Canada says. 'The list of candidates will be available at every voting table so that electors can find the name of their candidate of choice.' Elections Canada says counting the ballots in Battle River-Crowfoot is likely to take longer than usual. The agency has said long ballots create accessibility barriers for some voters because the ballots become 'overwhelming and confusing.' In a briefing document posted on the Elections Canada website, the agency raised concerns about voters who use wheelchairs. It said it's difficult for them to reach past the middle of a long ballot without pulling it off the table, which risks damaging or spoiling the ballot. 'These visual and physical challenges impact the independence and secrecy of the voting experience since some voters with disabilities must resort to asking for assistance from an election officer to properly handle or mark the long ballot,' the document says. — With files from Sarah Ritchie This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2025.
