Alberta's Longest Ballot byelection is a protest for what politicians' fear — electoral reform
The Longest Ballot is not a prank, but a political protest designed to highlight our flawed electoral system and underscore the need for electoral reform. By using the loophole of non-resident candidacy, Pierre Poilievre is desperately circumventing our system of local representation. Fine for him to crawl through this loophole but when others follow suit he screams foul, even though he set the example.
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Edmonton Journal
an hour ago
- Edmonton Journal
Rick Bell: Alberta, the rest of us wait for Carney to do something
Article content And Elbows Up is now a punchline to a joke. It hasn't aged well. Article content At best, it is an oddity like one of those teen dances from decades ago. Let's all do the Hand Jive! Article content Carney is a politician not a messiah or a comic book superhero. If and when Canada gets a deal with Trump it won't be because Canada yelled the loudest or threatened the most or declared war on the U.S. Article content A deal will come because Carney is not doing what the mob wanted. Article content In Alberta, our fate awaits. When will Carney take the handcuffs off the oilpatch and strengthen Canada's economy in these trying times with the U.S.? Article content Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was in Calgary. He tries to explain Carney. Article content 'For the last ten years Mark Carney was a net-zero, keep it in the ground green fanatic. He said he wanted to keep at least half our oil in the ground. He's testified against the Northern Gateway pipeline. He supported all the carbon taxes. He's publicly spoken in favour of the electric vehicle mandate,' says Poilievre. Article content Article content Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, flanked by members of parliament, speaks in front of workers and a fracking pump at EnQuest Energy Solutions in Calgary on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. Article content 'He's tried to present himself as some big change because he looks and sounds different than Justin Trudeau but he has supported all of the same policies.' 'What he's doing right now is ragging the puck and trying to drag people along into believing he will one day do something. But he hasn't done anything other than hold a lot of meetings and make a lot of bold statements.' Article content For the guy who says he wants to build baby build we wait for action from Carney. Article content Alberta is losing patience. Rebecca Schulz, the environment minister in Premier Danielle Smith's government, echoed that sentiment in a recent interview with your scribbler. Article content When is Carney announcing he will dump the nasty laws holding back the Canadian economy, a move Premier Smith has been pushing hard, as has Poilievre? Article content Article content At the risk of Carney plagiarizing Poilievre, why does the prime minister not just repeat the following. Article content 'We can't wait until everybody is onside.' Article content 'There are some people out there who don't believe Elvis is dead. You can't get everybody to agree on any basic fact, even the basic fact we need a pipeline.'
Globe and Mail
8 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Letters to the editor, Aug. 10: ‘Canada should now take all concessions off the table … it is time to be tough against a tyrant'
Re 'Poilievre says Carney has failed with Trump, urges narrow countertariffs' (Aug. 8): I worry that Canada might capitulate to bullying from Washington like so many other countries have done. From my perspective, Canada should now take all concessions off the table, including elimination of the digital services tax. Canada should also impose tariffs on non-USMCA-compliant vehicles and other goods from the United States. Hit back on any other items that can generate revenue to compensate our people from the impact of tariffs, including energy and oil and gas. Perhaps Canada and Britain can reach a deal on steel. Both countries export to the U.S; if what each country makes complements the loss of U.S. trade, it could be win-win. It is time to be tough against a tyrant. Bullies are encouraged by acquiescence. Fawning is disgusting and encourages him. Janet Henley St. John's Re 'Carney announces $1.2-billion in lumber industry supports' (Report on Business, Aug. 6): Get around U.S. softwood tariffs by going metric. Years ago, we went metric for weights and measurements at great expense, for little payback. There would certainly be costs involved, but if we went metric on softwood manufacturing, then the world would be our market and not just the United States. We would lose the U.S. market, but then, as Donald Trump said, they 'don't need anything Canada has.' Frank Best Collingwood, Ont. Re 'Trump's firing of economic data collector raises alarm' (Aug. 4): Examples from Greece, China, and Argentina of the disastrous results of political interference in non-political institutions are helpful. But we don't have to look far to see similar examples much closer to home. Not long ago, the Harper government didn't seem to like the policy implications of demographic information, so the long-form census was cancelled; for similar reasons, scientific input into public discourse was silenced. And there are more current provincial examples of attacks on public institutions and processes. Institutional interference that serves only political purposes is always corrosive. It is well and good to be reminded of this by observing the international experience. However, that does not obviate the need to be aware of the same phenomena, past and present, occurring right here. Kent Sargeant Calgary Re 'How Norway cracked the electric-vehicle code' (Aug. 1): Here's one way to shift to more electric vehicles. Fully charged EV batteries should be modular and available for exchange at gas stations. It should take less than one minute when all EVs are designed for quick battery replacement. The removed batteries should then be sent to large central facilities that refurbish and recharge them, then send them back to services stations. Motorists don't own the batteries; the cost could be added to monthly electricity bills. This method would require little new infrastructure and no need for motorists to replace expensive long-term batteries. 'Refuelling' times would be faster than filling a tank with gasoline. Frank Foulkes Professor emeritus, department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, University of Toronto Re 'What's in a number?' (Letters, Aug. 2): Several correspondents have argued strongly for lowering the voting age to 16. That, by lowering the voting age, democracy is strengthened. That, in particular, it is our youth who will have to live with the downstream results of today's political decisions. And, at present, the future has no vote. So why stop at 16? Since those under 16 have even more riding on the future, their votes should be cast by their mothers, acting on their behalves. I guarantee child poverty and related issues would be cleared up within a couple of election cycles. Just look at what the senior vote did for my demographic. Here is an opportunity for Canada to show the world we take the future of our youngsters very seriously. Allan Portis Toronto Re 'A long ballot satire within satire' (July 30): So the Longest Ballot Committee believes that election laws would be better made by a citizens' assembly. Why stop there? Given the issues with electoral politics on every file, why not turn Parliament itself into a citizens' assembly – that is, appoint members by random lottery? (The modern term for this is sortition.) If they want real democracy, regardless of leaning left or right, return democracy to its roots: This is how officials were appointed in ancient Athens, where elections were deprecated by Aristotle as a recipe for oligarchy. People on juries act seriously. It can work in Parliament, too. Mark Tilley Middlesex County, Ont. Re 'Vancouver mourns the loss of its iconic Kitsilano Beach log' (Aug. 2): While I understand the city's concern for safety, the removal of the beloved giant driftwood from Kitsilano Beach without thought for the community has truly left us saddened. For generations, this magnificent piece served as a play area for children, a sunset gathering spot for friends and families and no less a peaceful place for meditation for many of us. It wasn't just a piece of wood, it was a keeper of memories and a symbol of community connection. It's not too late to commemorate this driftwood's profound impact. I urge Vancouver officials to work with residents to create a meaningful legacy, be it through an art installation, a memorial plaque, poetry embedded nearby or ultimately a safe, remodelled structure that pays tribute to the original. Beryl Woodrow Vancouver Re 'Cleaning after my mother's death taught me about what can't be replaced' (First Person, Aug. 1): I, too, despaired at the task of cleaning out my mother's home after she died almost two years ago. My mom was also an organized 'keeper.' When I would gently chastise her for the multiple accumulated notepads, or stacks of balls of wool we'd come across while valiantly searching for some other crucial item, she'd smile and say, 'I will use them one day!' I'm now ashamed that this occasionally annoyed me. (I did, surreptitiously, do away with my childhood Encyclopedia Britannica set. I'm sure she noticed, but didn't say a word.) The smallest things made my heart skip a beat when I came across them after her death: her favourite lipstick tucked in the back of a drawer, a delicate and frayed silk scarf not worn for years, a copy of a note to a dear friend. I carry one of her many handwritten shopping lists-bookmarks in my wallet. Andrea Cooper Murphy Toronto Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Globe and Mail
Alberta Insider: Advance voting begins in by-election that can return Poilievre to the Commons
Good morning! Wendy Cox here this morning filling in for a vacationing Mark Iype. Voters in Alberta's Battle River-Crowfoot riding have their first chance at advance voting today in a by-election that could return Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to the House of Commons. Mr. Poilievre is widely expected to win. He's explicitly running in the seat far, far away from the Ottawa-area riding he had held for two decades but lost to the Liberals in the last election. Battle River-Crowfoot is considered one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. Damien Kurek won the seat with 82 per cent of the vote in April and had held it since 2019, but gave it up for Mr. Poilievre. Rather than marking an X, voters will have to write a name in a blank on their ballot, a first in a Canadian election. (Elections Canada assures misspelled names will still be accepted as a vote.) Some 214 candidates have signed up to run, many of whom don't live in Alberta, much less the riding, and most of them running with no intent to win on Aug. 18. The protest candidates are part of the Longest Ballot Committee, a group calling for changes to Canada's electoral system. This is the fourth time Alex Banks has run in an election – the first was last year in the Toronto-St. Paul's federal by-election. He told Globe reporter Emily Haws his participating is a fun form of protest for a cause he believes in. 'I thought it was a low-impact, high-visibility way' to protest in favour of electoral reform, he said. 'You're not shutting down streets. You're not interfering in people's daily lives, but you're clearly making a point.' The group contends that politicians face a conflict of interest in making election laws, and that those decisions should instead be made by an independent, non-partisan body such as a citizens' assembly. The committee itself does not have a demand for any particular set of election rules. Rather, it's a demand that politicians recuse themselves from the process. The ballot paper resulting from so many candidates would be so long as to gum up the process for counting ballots. The Longest Ballot Committee was once in league with Canada's long-standing satire party the Rhinoceros Party, which once had a campaign promise to repeal the law of gravity. (Columnist Campbell Clark described the Rhinos as the 'merry pranksters of Canadian politics.') In 2019, the committee said it wanted to set a Guinness Book of World Record for the longest ballot ever, but it fell far short: The Guinness Book lists the record at 1,187 candidates, who ran in the Prague municipal elections in 1994. But Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault is not amused. He has been outspoken about long ballots, which he says create confusion for voters and challenges in counting and processing results. Perrault has called for the federal government to bring in penalties for individuals who are responsible for stacking ballots with independent candidates. The Globe's editorial board is even less amused, writing that the group 'is weaponizing the good intentions underpinning electoral rules, which are meant to give candidates a relatively easy path to get on the ballot.' To get on a ballot, candidates need the signatures of at least 100 voters – only 50 in some ridings – and have an official agent to file paperwork. Living in the riding isn't mandatory, a good thing for Poilievre. The Globe notes the committee has been able to round up so many candidates in part by having voters sign multiple nomination papers. The group's spokesperson, Tomas Szuchewycz, was listed as the official agent for 199 nominations as of Monday. Candidates don't have to do the work of convincing their fellow Canadians; the committee does it for them with a copy-and-paste system. But the voices of actual independent candidates get drowned out, the editorial board argues. Independent candidate Bonnie Critchley pleaded with the group in May in a Facebook post not to bring its disruptive campaign to Battle River-Crowfoot. 'Your actions make it impossible for electors to be able to find anyone who isn't attached to a party,' she wrote in an open letter on Facebook. 'You are further pushing us into a party system.' The editorial board concludes that far from the fun Mr. Banks appears to be having, the Longest Ballot Committee is conducting 'electoral sabotage.' This is Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you're reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
