On Aug. 18, when voters in the Alberta riding of Battle River–Crowfoot go to the polls in a federal byelection, the ballot will be quite lengthy.
At present, there are candidates from nine political parties, as well as a huge list of independent candidates, thanks to the efforts of the Longest Ballot Committee.
There are at least 214 candidates registered, most of them independents
To put this number into perspective, there are almost twice as many names on this ballot as in Canada’s Senate, which has 105 members.
There are almost enough names at present to fill the rosters of eight National Hockey League teams, which limit a team to no more than 23 players in total.
A Toronto subway car, with a capacity of up to 180 people, could not accommodate all the 209 people registered for this election.
Previously, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s riding of Nepean—Carleton in Ontario, the Longest Ballot Committee fielded 91 candidates. This time, as Poilievre seeks to win a seat in a byelection, the number of independent candidates is much greater.
A lengthy ballot is a form of political theatre. People notice, and they talk about this initiative.
The effort to create such a long ballot may appear absurd, but the reason behind it is no joke. The committee, which has its roots in the satirical Rhinoceros Party, is working to make a serious point.
Organizers say they are protesting the first-past-the-post voting system in Canada, where the candidate receiving the most votes in a riding is the one elected.
The committee is also says there is a conflict of interest when politicians are in charge of election rules.
Canada has a strong record internationally for the integrity of its elections. The voting process and the counting process are fair.
But there are complaints about the first-past-the-post system, used to determine the outcome of Canadian elections.
In some ridings, a candidate is elected by a slim margin, which means the majority of voters did not support this candidate.
And at times, the party with the greatest voter support is not the party to form government. In the elections of 2019 and 2021, the Liberals won the most seats, but the Conservatives had the most votes.
The reason for this difference is that while the Conservatives had extremely strong support in many ridings, especially in Alberta, the Liberals had a broader base of support overall.
In 2025, the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party both had 6.29 per cent of the popular vote, but the Bloc won 22 seats while the New Democrats finished with seven. The Bloc received 6.4 per cent of the seats in Parliament, while the New Democrats finished with two per cent of the seats.
The Green Party of Canada, with 2.33 per cent of the popular vote, won just one seat, or less than one-third of one per cent of the seats in the house.
Whatever one thinks of Canada’s first-past-the-post system, and whatever one thinks of the method used by the Longest Ballot Committee to raise awareness of this issue, the stated goal is a serious matter.
The efforts are also getting a lot of criticism.
Poilievre has criticized the multitude of independent candidates as confusing to voters and undermining democracy.
Libertarian candidate Michael Harris has referred to the effort as a mockery of the democratic process.
Other candidates in this byelection have also criticized the Longest Ballot Committee’s efforts, for similar reasons.
The attention generated by the many names on the ballot in the Battle River–Crowfoot byelection may result in an examination of how candidate nominations are handled in the future.
Whether such an examination will result in the changes sought by the Longest Ballot Committee remains to be seen.
John Arendt is the editor of the Summerland Review.
