The conservative chief Pierre Hairy exhorta Ottawa to intervene to prevent the rehearsal of the initiative that generated the majority of the 152 candidates for the by-election of Battle River-Crowfoot, in Alberta, scheduled for next month.
Mr. Poilievre, who will try on August 18 a return to the House of Communes after having been defeated in the district of Carleton, Ontario, accuses the committee of the longest ballot of voting of “manipulating the rules, misleading the voters and of harming confidence in the electoral process”.
This initiative, which was also at the origin of the majority of 91 candidates in Carleton in April and the 91 candidates for the by-election in Lasalle-Émard-Verdun in 2024, aims in particular to prevent politicians from deciding themselves the rules of the elections, according to what is indicated on his Bluesky account.
“It is not democratic,” said Mr. Hairy in a letter addressed to the liberal leader in the chamber, Steven Mackinnon. We ask the government to put in place immediate measures on the return from Parliament in September to put an end to the scam of the longest ballot. ”
The Conservatives ask that more signatures be necessary to offer a candidacy, that each signature collected is exclusive to a single candidate and that an official agent can represent only one candidate.
According to Elections Canada, 152 applications were accepted for the by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot, including 147 independents.
Some 145 of them are represented by the same official agent, Tomas Szuchewycz.
“These reforms will ensure that it will be impossible for the scam of the longest voting bulletin to operate again and will return the voting bulletin to voters without there being any manipulation,” added Mr. Poilievre, in his letter.
For its part, the committee of the longest ballot deplored these pressures put forward by the conservative chief.
Two petitions sponsored by conservative elected officials have also emerged on the website of the House of Commons in recent months to claim changes in the process of submission of a candidacy.
“Mr. Hairy’s proposal would have a deep and negative impact on democracy in Canada,” said the Bluesky committee last week. In most Canada, the elections would become a race for two. ”
“This poorly conceived and selfish reform proposed by the conservative chief is dangerous and strengthens our convictions that politicians are poorly placed to decide on the rules of their own elections,” it was added.
The 152 candidates for the bypass election of Battle River-Crowfoot constitute a record for a ballot in the federalum.