Here's why voters in an upcoming byelection will be casting ballots nearly a metre long
CBC
When voters in Toronto-St. Paul's go to the polls later this month, they might be wishing the ballot had a search function.
A record 84 people have put their names forward as candidates for the June 24 byelection, making it the longest ballot ever in a federal election.
Dozens of independent candidates have entered the race as part of an organized protest against Canada's first-past-the-post voting system.
"We need to highlight the fact that our voting system is a joke and it's producing results that are completely Inaccurate and distorted," said Glen MacDonald, a candidate in Toronto-St. Paul's and a volunteer with the group Longest Ballot Committee.
MacDonald pointed to the last two elections, which the Liberals won despite losing the popular vote.
The Longest Ballot Committee has encouraged candidates to put their names forward in protest in two previous byelections — in the Ontario riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore in 2022 and last year in Winnipeg South Centre, which previously held the record for most candidates. For Toronto-St. Paul's, the group has roughly doubled the number of candidates on the ballot; the previous two campaigns had 40 and 48 candidates respectively.
Julie St-Amand, who has put her name on the ballot for all three of those byelections, said advocacy campaigns in the past haven't been effective and she hopes the high number of candidates is drawing attention to the electoral reform debate.
"By just getting more people aware and talking about it, we're hoping it just spreads like wildfire," she said.
Elections Canada has had to make a number of temporary changes to the Elections Act in order to accommodate the oversized ballots. (The law allows the head of Elections Canada to make short-term changes in the case of "an emergency, an unusual or unforeseen circumstance.")
The ballot will have two columns of candidates listed side-by-side, instead of the traditional single column. In addition, the circles where voters mark their preference will be listed on the right and left margins of the ballot. (The Elections Act states the circles should always be listed to the right of a candidate's name.)
Elections Canada says the ballot is 30 centimetres wide and 90 centimetres long.
A typical ballot box can contain 1,000 ballots. Elections Canada expects only 100 will fit in each ballot box on election night in Toronto St. Paul's.
Under Canada's current voting system, a candidate can win a riding by simply winning the most votes, even if they fail to win 50 per cent support.
Both St-Amand and MacDonald said they would prefer some kind of proportional electoral system where the seats in the House of Commons reflect a party's national vote share.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.