Electoral reform group stuffs byelection ballot with candidates

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This article was published 29/05/2023 (918 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ACTIVISTS for electoral reform have set their sights on Winnipeg South Centre.

The ballot for the upcoming federal byelection on June 19 has been inundated with independent candidates running under a group called the Longest Ballot Committee. The group is pushing for an end to Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system by setting a record for the number of candidates in one riding.

There were 42 confirmed candidates for Winnipeg South Centre as of Monday afternoon’s registration deadline. Elections Canada expects to post the full candidate list, including any last-minute registrants, by Wednesday.

Of those 42, all but five have the same official agent: Kieran Szuchewycz, a Longest Ballot Committee organizer. Szuchewycz didn’t respond to an interview request Monday.

Former Winnipeg mayoral candidate Christopher Clacio is among those supporting the Longest Ballot’s cause.

On Monday, he said Szuchewycz reached out to him after Clacio, 30, campaigned on being a young, average citizen — and came in last of 11 mayoral candidates in October’s municipal election. Clacio is one of the few Longest Ballot candidates who resides in Winnipeg.

“The purpose is to make a statement that people are frustrated with our current political system, and so people really do need to be engaged at the end of the day,” Clacio said.

Elections Canada is training poll workers on how to fold the large ballot so as to maintain the secrecy of the vote, a spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement, saying it “poses accessibility and logistical issues.”

Names will be listed in alphabetical order, likely in two columns instead of one, and large-print list of candidates will be available at advance polls and on election day.

However, the braille template for visually-impaired voters had to be modified to fit two columns and will only be available on election day, Elections Canada stated.

There’s no legal limit to how many registered candidates can appear on a ballot, but the traditional ballot only fits 26 names.

The agency followed a similar process in December when a record-setting 40 candidates were registered for a federal byelection in the Mississauga—Lakeshore (Ontario) district.

The Longest Ballot group also organized the majority of those candidates, and has been planning to do the same in Winnipeg South Centre since at least February, according to the group’s Twitter account.

In a report following the December 2022 byelection, Elections Canada drew attention to the action, noting 32 registered candidates all had the same agent and used the same 100 resident elector signatures.

“These factors suggest that there was a level of co-ordination among some candidates in the byelection and raise questions as to whether candidates were truly seeking elected office on their own terms. The exceptionally large number of candidates also presented challenges related to the production and design of the ballot,” the report stated.

Twitter posts from Longest Ballot indicate it is trying to push for the end of the first-past-the-post system.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised electoral reform before he was first elected in 2015.

Clacio said he believes it’s crucial to have many diverse candidates running for public office, and if people are serious about electoral reform, they should band together. “The average citizen, I feel they don’t see the current political system that we have as working for them. And so I think this is the first step.”

Clacio acknowledged he’s aware of criticism the movement frustrates, rather than encourages, the democratic process. He is trying to combat that by putting forward his own platform that calls for a basic income and four-day work week at the federal level.

University of Winnipeg associate professor of political science Malcolm Bird said he doesn’t think too many Winnipeg South Centre voters will stray from voting along party lines. (Bird is a supporter of Conservative candidate Damir Stipanovic in the Winnipeg South Centre byelection and has donated to his campaign.)

The riding has been a Liberal stronghold (the party held it from 1988-2011 and 2015-22), and if the Liberals don’t win it in the byelection, “that might send a little bit of a shock or a message,” he said.

The Liberal candidate is Ben Carr, son of former MP Jim Carr, who died in 2022 at age 71 after winning three federal elections in the riding.

Bird said he understands people have “valid concerns” about Canada’s electoral system.

“I recognize that the system isn’t perfect, but it’s actually quite a good political system, just speaking very generally. And I sometimes worry that when lots of people are putting their names on the ballot, they’re somewhat undermining and, some might even say, trivializing the electoral process.”

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com