Keep MAGA Ideology Out Of Canadian Politics

- jim Young

“Democracy in the contemporary world demands, among other things, an educated and informed people.” - Elizabeth Bishop

Conservative Supporters Go MAGA

I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that just one of the reasons that Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives succumbed to Mark Carney and the Liberals in the recent Canadian Federal Election, is that too many Canadians, right or wrong, perceived Mr. Poilievre’s agenda to be too closely aligned with President Trump and MAGA.

Now it seems that some of Mr. Poilievre’s supporters are suggesting that one of the causes for the loss was election interference. Sound familiar? I hope we are not going down that road which will only serve to further strengthen the belief that Mr. Poilievre and the Conservatives have aligned themselves with Trump and MAGA too closely.

At least Mr. Poilievre himself has demonstrated too much class to jump on that bandwagon.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  If there was election interference, it’s a very serious matter that needs to be dealt with. But before we start storming Parliament Hill let’s be sure.

The Longest Ballot Committee

A big concern that is circulating Social Media involves the ballot that was issued for Mr. Poilievre’s riding of Carleton which held the names of 91 candidates.

Undoubtedly that played no small part in splitting the votes which ultimately may have contributed to Mr. Poilievre losing the election and putting him in the awkward position of being the opposition leader with no seat in parliament.

In fact the Longest Ballot Committee, which is responsible for 85 of the 91 candidates listed on the ballot in the Carleton riding, are using Mr. Poilievre’s loss as an indication that their protest was a success.

First Past The Post

The Longest Ballot Committee, a group that is protesting the “first past the post” system used for elections in Canada are trying to make a case for electoral reform.

LBC spokesman Tom Szuchewycz, who is also associated with the Rhinoceros Party by the way, claimed they had also intended to nominate multiple candidates in the riding for the Liberal candidate but ran out of time. It wasn’t clear until Mr. Carney had been nominated as Liberal Party Leader who would even be running in the 2025 election. To complicate matters, Mr. Carney didn’t initially even have a seat in parliament so the LBC had no way of knowing which riding to target until the last minute.

A protest like this takes time to plan. A nomination package for anyone wishing to be registered as a candidate in any riding must be submitted within 21 days of an election being called.

It wasn’t until March 23rd that Prime Minister Carney called for the election to be held on April 28th which meant all nominations for candidates had to be submitted by April 13th. 

While there was no doubt that Mr. Poilievre was to be the candidate in the Carleton riding all along, giving lots of time for candidates to register, it wasn’t until March 22nd, the day before the election was called, that Mr. Carney announced he would represent the Nepean riding.

You don’t have to live in the riding that you are running in, however you do have to collect “the names, addresses and signatures of at least 100 people who consent to your candidacy” that “are qualified electors; and live in the electoral district where you intend to run.”

Each candidate must also “make a solemn declaration before an authorised person” such as an election officer, a judge, a notary public etc.

Not an easy task to accomplish in just 22 days in Mr. Carney’s riding but which was likely well underway in Mr. Poilievre’s riding.

It’s too bad that there wasn’t enough time to also pull together the protest in Nepean. What message would the protestors have sent to Canada if BOTH leaders of the winning party AND the opposition party lost their seats in parliament during the same election?

But the bottom line is, the actions of the Longest Ballot Party were neither illegal nor can they be considered election interference. 

Defending Democracy

One political expert clarified that there is no limit as to how many candidates can register for a ballot. To impose such a restriction would make a mockery of democracy.

Implementing high registration fees in an attempt to limit the number of entrants that would register would likewise be seen as unfair access to political participation.  

Why Now?

Most of the cries of political interference are coming from the Conservatives in the same way that MAGA protested Trump’s lost election in 2020.

I have to ask, “Why now?” This isn’t the first time the Longest Ballot Committee has employed these tactics in Canadian Elections. They’ve been at it since 2021. Where were the cries of “political interference” then?

In September 2024 the LBC ran a similar campaign in a Montreal byelection under the Rhinoceros Party. It too had 91 names on it, 79 of which were associated with the LBC.

Likewise, last June a byelection in Toronto had 84 candidates including 77 linked to the LBC. But no one was crying “foul” in any of those elections.

And where were the indignant cries of “foul” just prior to the election? These 85 candidates were not secretly added to the ballot the night before election day. It was public knowledge. The names were all added within the required time frame as set out by Elections Canada to provide time for objections prior to the election taking place.

Certainly Mr. Poilievre and the Conservative Party were aware this protest was under way.

The CBC ran this story as early as April 7th. They exposed the Longest Ballot Committee’s intentions and reported there were 80 candidates (at the time) of the LBC already registered.

The irony here of course is the Conservatives want to defund the CBC in part, due to accusations of biased news reporting to the government in power. But what did they do when the CBC tried to warn them? The Conservative Party didn’t even bother to respond, much less officially object.

And again, I have to ask - where were the cries of “foul” then?

AND IN THE END

On election day on April 28, 2025, Liberal Bruce Fanjoy received a total of 43,846 votes in the Carleton Riding.

Conservative Pierre Poilievre received 39,333.

The collective votes the Longest Ballot Committee managed to receive totalled 887 votes.

So it doesn’t seem the split votes affected the outcome after all. 

In fact, even if Mr. Poilievre had gotten ALL of the votes for the LBC candidates AND all of the votes for ALL of the other parties AND the votes from ALL of the rejected ballots, Mr. Poilievre STILL wouldn’t have won his seat in the Carleton riding.

I’m not sure what the criteria Tom Szuchewycz used to declare the protest a success was, but the 887 votes the LBC received only represents about 1% of the total valid votes received. In a much closer race I would think these numbers might have the potential to alter the outcome.  

But in this election there was No harm so - No foul! 

Maybe it’s just all ado about nothing.

Quit being so MAGA about it.

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