Man changes name to Above Znoneofthe for Ont. byelection

Above Znoneofthe, formerly known as Sheldon Bergson, speaks to CTV's Your Morning about his name change on May 29, 2017.

An Ontario man has changed his name to quite literally make himself the "none of the above" candidate in a provincial byelection, in hopes of winning support from disillusioned voters.

Above Znoneofthe (Znoneofthe, Above on a ballot) says he legally changed his name so election officials would have no choice but to put that phrase at the bottom of the ballot for Thursday's byelection in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. The Z is silent, but it's there so his name will appear at the bottom of an alphabetical list of candidates.

Znoneofthe, formerly known as Sheldon Bergson, says the drastic change was a ploy to capture more attention as an independent candidate.

"Do you remember the time Sheldon Bergson ran as an independent in Thornhill about 20 years ago?" Bergson said on CTV's Your Morning on Monday. "No, because people don't pay attention to independents."

He says, after losing that election, he decided that if he were ever to run again, he'd need an angle or "hook" to stand out.

Znoneofthe ultimately decided to change his name and return to politics in 2015, in response to former prime minister Stephen Harper's behaviour during the last federal election. He says he was upset that Harper frequently limited questions from the press and opted to skip debates during the campaign.

"That offended me," he said. "The deal is that the press asks questions on my behalf, and you answer them if you're elected, and he started to break that deal."

Znoneofthe says he plans to run in the next provincial and federal elections, after which he'll likely change his name back to Sheldon - if he doesn't win. If he does earn a seat, he says he plans to hold the provincial or federal liberals to account "as much as I can."

And while he is running as an independent candidate in the June 1 byelection, Znoneofthe won't be alone going forward. He's now part of the None of the Above Party of Ontario, which pledges to run candidates in all of Ontario's provincial ridings in 2018. The party touts itself as a group of "independent MPPs who are not bound by party control and who truly can represent their constituents first."

It's unclear whether all of the candidates will be changing their names, or if Znoneofthe's name will remain one-of-a-kind.