Longest Ballot Committee collecting signatures for potential candidates in Terrebonne by-election

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A group that protests Canada’s electoral system by loading up ballots with the names of dozens of little-known candidates says it is looking to do so in the April by-election in Terrebonne, Que., a race that could give Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government a much firmer grip on the House of Commons.

Tomas Szuchewycz, an organizer with the group, the Longest Ballot Committee, confirmed in a text message that “volunteers are out collecting signatures for Terrebonne.”

The nomination deadline is March 23 at 2 p.m., and each candidate needs 100 signatures from people who live in the riding in order to appear on the ballot.

Mr. Szuchewycz did not respond when asked why the group was organizing in Terrebonne.

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Mr. Carney has called three by-elections for April 13. Two of those seats, the Toronto ridings of University-Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest, are considered Liberal strongholds and are expected to stay Liberal, according to Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research.

The Liberals won Terrebonne by one vote in the general election last April, with the Bloc Québécois finishing second.

After the election, a Terrebonne voter told reporters she had cast her ballot for the Bloc by mail but it had been returned as undeliverable. There was an error in the postal code of the polling station that the returning officer had put on the ballot’s envelope.

The Terrebonne result was annulled by the Supreme Court.

The by-elections are taking place as Mr. Carney’s government is on the cusp of a majority government. As things stand in the House, if his Liberals win the two seats that are considered strongholds, they will have a bare majority. But if they also win Terrebonne, that majority will be more comfortable, and they will have less need to compromise with other parties.

The Longest Ballot Committee has protested several recent races, including the Battle River-Crowfoot by-election in Alberta last summer, which Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won after losing his Ottawa-area riding in the general election.

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The group argues that politicians are in a conflict of interest when they are in charge of creating election rules, which the group’s members say should instead be determined by a citizens’ assembly.

Mr. Nanos said that if the Longest Ballot Committee protests in Terrebonne, its biggest impact will likely be its disruption of the electoral process, not an influence on the by-election’s outcome.

“I can’t see a situation where the long ballot, in this particular case, when it’s a coin toss, could really favour either of the two likely front-running parties – the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois,” he said.

In their campaigning in the riding, the Liberals will be arguing for a majority government and for Mr. Carney to lead the country, he said, while the Bloc will be telling voters to send a message to Ottawa and make the Bloc stronger to advocate within Canada.

“There will be two competing referendum questions in this particular by-election, and it’s too early to tell which one will dominate,” Mr. Nanos said.

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While the Liberals are polling strongly nationally, he said, by-elections are wild cards because they are a temperature-check on the government and a battle of local field organization.

“A by-election is very different than a general election, because parties can bring volunteers to bear on a small level of geography,” he said.

During the Battle River-Crowfoot by-election, Elections Canada decided to switch to a write-in ballot to deal with the unusually large number of candidates. It said at the time that this change was needed to ensure the accessibility and integrity of the vote.

Elections Canada spokesperson Clare MacDonald said in a statement on Monday that the non-partisan agency has a mandate to administer federal elections or by-elections when they are called, regardless of circumstances.

“As always, we will watch closely as nomination papers are filed to see what adjustments may be needed to the ballot, operational procedures” and communications, she said. “This includes being ready to make adjustments to counting procedures to help expedite the process, in the case that a larger or adapted ballot introduces some delays.”

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John Beebe, the director of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Democratic Engagement Exchange, said that even if someone is sympathetic to the cause of the Longest Ballot Committee, it is problematic to use elections as protest vehicles because it makes them harder to participate in and administer.

When elections are tight and people’s confidence in the electoral system is challenged, such as in Terrebonne, a protest by the group would be another wrinkle that would not add to ensuring the health and vitality of Canada’s democracy, Mr. Beebe said.

Switching to write-in ballots, as Elections Canada did for Battle River-Crowfoot, inevitably “makes the counting process more complicated, and then also the adjudication process more complicated if it’s a particularly close election,” he said, because of issues with handwriting and spelling mistakes.

The procedure and House affairs committee is also in the process of writing a report into the protest group’s actions and Chris Bittle, the committee chair, said he hopes it will be released soon.