Ballot box issue: Elections Canada criticized over long lines

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This article was published 22/04/2025 (187 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Deciding to vote early, Bill Lopuck opened the door to his riding’s advance poll in St. Norbert last week, saw a sea of humanity, and promptly left.

When he returned a few hours later, half an hour before the poll closed for the day, the wait was a more manageable 15 minutes.

“I’ve been voting for over 50 years — I’ve never missed one — and I’ve never seen it like that,” Lopuck said Tuesday.

“I don’t think they were organized.”

The Winnipeg South riding advance polling station wasn’t the only one with long lines.

Across the country, queues were the norm as a record 7.3 million Canadians voted ahead of the April 28 federal election. Advance voting, which took place over the long weekend, was up 26 per cent (more than 1.5 million voters) over the 2021 election — at that time a record.

University of Manitoba political studies Prof. Christopher Adams said Elections Canada has work to do before the next vote.

“This shows that the stories about the long lines were not simply anecdotal, but real,” Adams said.

“I guess this election was called fairly quickly — and it’s the shortest I’ve ever known — but through the years, Elections Canada has done everything it can to reduce the barriers and hurdles for voters. I would hope Elections Canada works on this for the next election because turnout has been declining over the past 40 years.”

Adams said the organization needs proper staffing to keep lines to a minimum.

But Elections Canada regional spokeswoman Marie-France Kenny, who worked at an advance poll Friday and Saturday, said enough workers were on.

“I think we had enough staff. Usually it is typical, the first day, for it to take longer, for everybody to get their groove,” Kenny said.

“Once that goes, it goes much faster.”

Kenny said based on the two million votes cast Friday and Saturday, she figured the total over four days would be close to the 5.8 million votes cast in 2021. It easily blew past that number.

“Did it take everybody by surprise? Yes and no,” she said. “We don’t really know ahead of time what factors motivate people, but it was a long weekend, a long holiday weekend. We thought people might actually go out and vote before they go away for the weekend, just to get rid of it because it’s a day off and they don’t have to run their kids to soccer and whatever…

“Then, some people thought we would get less because it is a holiday and people are going away. As it turns out, we got more.”

Kenny said while Elections Canada is still hiring to work in poll stations, there is not a big push in hiring in the city.

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“Typically, I remember past elections where I get calls from Winnipeg asking “can you advertise (for poll workers) and I didn’t get that this time around,” she said.

“I’m guessing they either have all their people or they are close to getting them and they are just hiring extras right now.”

Kenny said most poll workers, who must be over the age of 16 and Canadian citizens, are paid $20 per hour, or, time and a half on holidays.

She said anyone who wants to apply should go to elections.ca and click on jobs.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.