Protest group hoping to add 200+ names to Pierre Poilievre’s Alberta byelection ballot

An example of a ballot for the riding of Carleton, showing the names of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal Party of Canada candidate Bruce Fanjoy, is seen at the Elections Canada Distribution Centre on the day of the federal election in Ottawa on April 28, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang) (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

A protest group that signed up dozens of candidates to run in Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s riding in the past federal election is planning to bring their campaign to an upcoming Alberta byelection.

The Longest Ballot Committee is working to see if it can find 200 people interested in adding their names to the ballot in the upcoming Battle River – Crowfoot byelection.

The group was responsible for adding 85 names to the ballot for Carleton, Poilievre’s former riding, for a total of 91 candidates running in the federal election.

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Poilievre ended up losing the seat, which he had held for nearly two decades, to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy by 4,315 votes.

In an email to supporters, the Longest Ballot Committee said it has received “dozens and dozens of emails from people asking to join the ballot” for the upcoming byelection.

“Given the outpouring of interest, we will do our best to make a long ballot happen if we get at least 200 people signing up to be candidates,” the group said.

The Conservative Party announced Friday that Damien Kurek, the MP for Battle River-Crowfoot, intended to resign his seat to allow Poilievre to run in a byelection to regain a seat in the House of Commons.

Kurek, an MP since 2019, won the seat with more than 82 per cent of the vote – or 53,684 total votes.

The next closest was Liberal candidate Brent Sutton, finishing with 7,566 votes for 11.7 per cent.

Poilievre posted a video on social media on Monday, walking along a pathway on the Prairies with his wife, thanking his supporters, despite the result of the election not being what the Conservatives had hoped.

“We didn’t get over the finish line, which means that I need to learn and grow, and our team needs to expand,” Poilievre said in the video.

“That will be my mission. And we’ve got a path. With a path to get elected back into parliament, as soon as possible, we’ll be holding the government to account, proposing better ideas to solve the problems that you’re facing every day.”

In another post Monday, the Conservative leader posted photos from a meeting with Kurek on his family farm.

The Longest Ballot Committee’s goal is to protest Canada’s electoral system.

“It would benefit voters if politicians recused themselves and passed decisions about election rules to a permanent, independent, and non-partisan body such as a citizens’ assembly,” the group said in its email.

“The long ballots give us a platform to advocate for this and have a lot of fun doing it.”

The group told CTV News the campaign will continue until politicians recuse themselves from deciding election rules.

The committee wouldn’t share how many people had signed up to run, but in a post on BlueSky on Saturday, they said they had as many as 32 names signed up.

The long ballots in Carleton created a complicated vote-counting process for Elections Canada. Along with needing a larger, custom ballot, workers started counting advance votes six hours before polls closed on election day.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was asked about the long ballot in Carleton on her provincial radio show on the weekend, saying she is concerned by the campaign.

“That’s not what good democracy looks like. I don’t support those kinds of efforts,” Smith said Saturday.

“Pierre Poilievre was clearly targeted.”

Smith said her government is reviewing the Alberta Elections Act to see how “gaming of the system” can be avoided in the province.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week he will call the byelection quickly to allow the Conservative leader the chance to return to the House of Commons.

With files from The Canadian Press