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A group that has signed up droves of protest candidates in a number of elections and byelections in recent years is organizing in another upcoming vote, this time in Terrebonne.
The Montreal-area riding is just one of three byelections being held in April.
A group of electoral reform advocates known as the Longest Ballot Committee has rallied a flood of candidates in more than half-a-dozen electoral contests over the past five years.
“We’ve had a lot of promises from various governments on the local level, on the provincial level, on the federal level for electoral reform for ages now,” said Mark Moutter, who has previously run as a protest candidate a number of times.
“It always comes down to the fact that politicians don’t benefit from [electoral reform].”
The Longest Ballot Committee wants a citizens’ assembly in charge of electoral reform, and say political parties are too reluctant to make government more representative of the electorate.
Moutter said the group’s volunteers are collecting signatures in Terrebonne ahead of the March 23 deadline to register as a candidate.
In the past, the group’s efforts have forced Elections Canada to make adjustments to the ballots — in a number of instances the election body printed ballots that were nearly a metre long.
Last summer, in the Alberta byelection where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre regained a seat in the House, Elections Canada opted to use a write-in ballot rather than accommodate the more than 200 names on a mammoth piece of paper.
If the Liberals win two of the upcoming byelections, Prime Minister Mark Carney would secure a thin majority government.
Two of the ridings — University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest — are in Toronto and considered safe Liberal seats.
The race will be much tighter in Terrebonne, where the Liberals won by one vote over the Bloc Québécois last year.
But the Supreme Court recently tossed that result out over a misprint on mail-in ballot envelopes. CBC News reported shortly after the election that a voter — who had marked their ballot for the Bloc — had their mail-in ballot returned to them due a misprint on the return envelope.
The Supreme Court of Canada has annulled the federal election result in the hotly contested Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne. The Liberals won by a single vote in a judicial recount. But the riding’s Bloc Québécois candidate asked the courts to call for a new election after CBC News found a voter’s mail-in ballot was returned to them over a misprint on the return envelope.
Moutter said the group chose Terrebonne because of the unique circumstances that led to the byelection being called in the first place.
“This is the perfect context to talk about electoral reform since we’re talking about a byelection that is being run due to our electoral system being broken,” he said.
The Terrebonne byelection will be a rematch with Tatiana Auguste running against Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, who previously held the riding for the Bloc Québécois.
Although the Liberals edged out the win in the now-annulled election, Sinclair-Desgagné had been the MP for Terrebonne since 2021 — and the riding has largely been held by the Bloc since the early 90s.
In past elections where the Longest Ballot Committee has organized, the massive ballots have confounded voters and caused counting delays.
Delays were avoided in August’s Alberta byelection thanks to the write-in ballot. But MPs have been calling for changes to election rules that would make it harder for the group to register candidates.
The procedures and House affairs committee conducted a study on the Longest Ballot Committee last fall and is expected to release a report with recommendations in the coming weeks.
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault, the head of Elections Canada, told the committee that requiring each candidate to hand in 100 unique signatures could put a damper on the protesters’ efforts, as they typically have electors sign multiple nomination forms.
Each candidate is also required to have an official agent, someone who acts as a candidate’s representative and handles campaign finances.
The candidates associated with the Longest Ballot Committee typically have the same official agent and MPs suggested during the committee study that the rules be changed to require an official agent to act for only one candidate in a riding.
Moutter seemed unfazed by the idea.
“I’m sure we’re going to keep finding ways to keep doing this,” he said.
All three byelections are being held on April 13, with advance polls open April 3 to April 6.
