Longest Ballot Committee and Electoral Reform

My thoughts about a...unique development in Canadian politics, and the effect I believe it has on Canadian electoral policies.

The words I use in the recording may not match the words in the transcript.

Transcript

Longest Ballot Committee and Electoral Reform

I've recently discovered something--err...unique--about Canadian politics: An activist group who aims to make ballots as long as possible as a 
form of protesting the 'first past the post' provincial and federal voting system.

This group, who calls themselves the Longest Ballot Committee--is, according to their Wikipedia page--'a Canadian activist movement, at one time affiliated with the Rhinoceros Party, known for flooding ballots with a large number of independent candidates in protest of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system. The movement argues there is a conflict of interest when politicians are in charge of election rules, and advocates 
for election law to be decided by a permanent, independent, and non-partisan body, such as a citizens' assembly.' On their website, Fair Vote Canada defines 'first past the post' as 'the winner-take-all voting system used for federal and provincial elections in Canada,' and spells out the problems with this system--namely, that it doesn't represent how voters actually voted, and so many voters' views are shut out of Parliament; Fair Vote Canada further states, 'When one party has 100% of the power, it often appears that the government is run by one leader and some backroom party strategists' and 'First past the post was supported by almost no-one – except the big party incumbent politicians!'

According to the Longest Ballot Committee's Wikipedia page: 'The first attempt for a long ballot was in the 2019 Canadian federal election, when the Rhinoceros Party attempted to set a Guinness World Record for the longest ballot paper in history in Conservative leader Andrew Scheer's riding of Regina—Qu'Appelle. Ultimately, only two candidates affiliated with the movement ended up on the ballot. The movement began garnering national attention after participating in the 2022 Mississauga—Lakeshore federal by-election, the 2023 Winnipeg South Centre federal by-election, and the 2024 Toronto—St. Paul's federal by-election--the last of which led to Elections Canada workers taking hours to count the ballots, and the final results not being known until 4:30 the next morning. The committee's actions have prompted amendments to election laws to accommodate a greater number of names on the ballots, and generated significant controversy' and 'in the federal election of this year, the Longest Ballot Committee targeted the Ottawa-Carleton riding, where Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre was running at the time.'

And now the Longest Ballot Committee is targeting Alberta’s Battle River–Crowfoot byelection--where Pierre Poilievre is running for a chance
to rejoin Canada's House of Commons.

Poilievre is calling the longest-ballot protest a 'scam,' and is now demanding a bill to stop it, stating, "This is not democracy in action. It is a deliberate attempt to manipulate the rules, confuse voters and undermine confidence in our elections." (The irony that Pierre Poilievre is the one saying this is not lost on me); in a Yahoo News piece, Poilievre is quoted as saying 'the government should change the number of signatures a candidate is required to have on a nomination form — from the current 100 to 0.5 per cent of a riding's population' (a couple of pieces I've read said he wants to increase the number of signatures from 100 to 1000). He also said electors should only be allowed to sign one nomination form and that official agents should only represent one candidate.

In another Yahoo News piece, the Longest Ballot Committee responded to Poilievre's remarks: "Ever since we started the LBC years ago we have been calling for politicians like Mr. Poilievre to step aside and recuse themselves from deciding election rules. The reason is simple: 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 committee has also stated that, "Closing loopholes barring election protests doesn’t address Canada’s need for election reform" and that 'erecting candidacy roadblocks doesn’t address the core issue behind their protest.' The committee, and others, say FPTP is unfair and outdated, and want Canada to enact balloting systems like proportional representation, which better reflect the popular vote over winning a straight majority--and state that 'Poilievre’s proposal is the direct opposite of election reform.'

I'd like to see Canada's electoral system reform--at all levels--but I don't think packing ballots with so many names that they're longer than a 8"*11"sheet of paper is the way to go--though I understand the frustration behind it. From where I'm standing, packing election ballots with names is no different from the milk pours staged in the United Kingdom by animal-activist group Animal Rebellion--the hearts of the people who stage these stunts are in the right place, but all they succeed in doing is inconveniencing workers (a lot of them low-wage) who are just trying to do their jobs; long ballots lengthen the amount of time it takes election workers to count ballots and publicize election results, just as pouring milk on the floor in grocery and convenience stores makes extra (and no doubt unpaid) work for low-wage workers. In short, the Longest Ballot Committee is just another example of how there is such a thing as hurting your own cause.


Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_Ballot_Committee

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/longest-ballot-federal-election-history-003815123.html

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/poilievre-calls-government-pass-rules-160015762.html

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/poilievre-calls-government-pass-rules-160015762.html

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/longest-ballot-committee-strikes-back-134034482.html

https://www.fairvote.ca/what-is-first-past-the-post/