Record-tying number of candidates running in Ottawa riding of Carleton

The Ottawa riding where Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is running now has nearly 80 names on the ballot, most of them part of a protest.

Voters in the Ottawa riding of Carleton will have a long list of candidates to choose from in the 45th general election, with a record-tying number of candidates on the ballot.

There are 91 registered candidates running for the seat in Carleton, the riding held by Conservative Party leader and incumbent Pierre Poilievre.  The 91 candidates tie the record for the most number of candidates in an election with the federal byelection last September in the Quebec riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verd.

Eighty-five of the candidates registered to run in Carleton are associated with the electoral reform group ‘The Longest Ballot Committee’ and all have the same official agent – Tomas Szuchewycz.

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The Longest Ballot Committee protests Canada’s first-past-the-post system. On its Bluesky account, the group says it is “having fun breaking records while pointing out that politicians shouldn’t be in charge of their own ethics and election rules.”

“Whenever they go out to go out and they see a lot of names, they fundamentally question why am I seeing so many names,” said Mark Moutter, a spokesperson for the group. “That actually starts a conversation with people and makes them realize how inefficient our current system is.”

Elections Canada is warning results from Carleton may be delayed on April 28 due to the “unusual circumstances created by the number of candidates on the ballot in Carleton.”

“To help ensure the results for Carleton are available as soon as possible, the Chief Electoral Officer may use his authority under the Canada Elections Act to allow the counting of advance poll votes to begin earlier on election day,” Elections Canada said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa. “Elections Canada may also look at other measures to help speed up the count, including bringing on extra teams to help with the count, and conducting additional training sessions to help familiarize workers with the larger ballot.”

The 91 candidates include Poilievre, Liberal Party candidate Bruce Fanjoy, the NDP candidate is Beth Prokaska and the Green Party candidate is Mark Watson. The People’s Party of Canada does not have a registered candidate running in the riding.

There were five candidates on the ballot in the riding of Carleton in the 2021 federal election.

According to the Elections Canada website, a candidate must collect the names, addresses and signatures of at least 100 people who consent to your candidacy. The people must be qualified electors and live in the electoral district where the candidate intends to run.

The Longest Ballot Committee targeted the riding of Toronto-St. Paul during a byelection last June, with 84 candidates on the ballot.

In November, the Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault raised concerns about ballot accessibility linked to the Longest Ballot Committee movement. Perrault recommended changes to ensure voters can only sign one nomination paper.

“We have now reached the point where any further increase to the number of candidates will require me to reduce the font size on the ballot, further compounding accessibility challenges. Marking and counting modified ballots takes longer and is more complex for voters and election workers,” Perrault told the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

“While I support the proposal in the bill to reduce the number of signatures required for nominations from 100 to 75, it is important to ensure that the requirement for supporting signatures is not turned on its head. In the case of the longest ballot initiative, we have seen nomination papers for the various participating candidates signed by the same electors. This indicates that voters who sign the nomination papers are not supporting the nomination of a particular candidate, but rather the idea of having as many candidates as possible, whomever they may be (consistent with the goals of the longest ballot initiative).”

According to the Longest Ballot Committee, it ended its attempt for a long ballot in Nepean.

In January, the Longest Ballot Committee also said it was targeting Liberal Party incumbent Chrystia Freeland’s Toronto riding of University-Rosedale. There are currently six candidates registered to run in the riding.

Here is the list of candidates running in Carleton:

• Independent: Sana Ahmad
• Independent: Mélodie Anderson
• Independent: Marthalee Aykroyd
• Independent: Alex Banks
• Independent: Tetia Bayoro
• Independent: Sophie Bearden
• Independent: Michael Bednarski
• Independent: Line Belanger
• Independent: Jeani Boudreault
• United Party of Canada: Karen Bourdeau
• Independent: Alain Bourgault
• Independent: John Boylan
• Independent: Sarah Burke
• Independent: Dante Camarena Jimenez
• Independent: Jenny Cartwright
• Independent: Jaël Champagne Gareau
• Independent: David Cherniak
• Rhinoceros Party: Sebastien CoRhino
• Independent: Charlie Currie
• Independent: John Dale
• No Affiliation: Manon Marie Lili Desbiens
• Independent: Gerrit Dogger
• No affiliation: Ysack Dupont
• Independent: Alexandra Engering
• Independent: Scott Falkingham
• Liberal Party: Bruce Fanjoy
• Independent: Euan Fraser Tait
• Independent: Maria Gabriel
• Independent: Daniel Gagnon
• Independent: Pierre Gauthier
• Independent: Gregory Gillis
• Independent: Jeffrey Goodman
• Independent: Peter Gorman
• Independent: Daniel Graham
• Independent: Artem Gudkov
• Independent: Zornitsa Halacheva
• Independent: Anthony Hamel
• Independent: Blake Hamilton
• Independent: Robert Harris
• Independent: Loren Hicks
• No Affiliation: Kerri Hildebrandt
• Independent: Andrea Hollinger
• Independent: Trevor Holsworth
• Independent: Seyed Hosseini Lavasani
• Independent: Ryan Huard
• Independent: Demetrios Karavas
• Independent: Laina Kohler
• Independent: Kevin Krisa
• Independent: Krzysztof Krzywinski
• Independent: Dan Kyung
• Independent: Samuel Lafontaine
• Independent: Alain Lamontagne
• Marijuana Party: Danny Légaré
• No affiliation: Alexander Lein
• Independent: Charles Lemieux
• Independent: Connie Lukawski
• Canadian Future Party: Shawn MacEachern
• Independent: Agnieszka Marszalek
• Independent: Joseph Maw
• Independent: Donald McKay
• Independent: Mark Moutter
• No Affiliation: Christopher Navarro-Canseco
• Independent: Winston Neutel
• Independent: David Nguyen
• Independent: Sheri Oberman
• Independent: John Francis O’Flynn
• Independent: Lény Painchaud
• Independent: Lanna Palsson
• Independent: Guillaume Paradis
• Conservative Party: Pierre Poilievre (incumbent)
• Independent: Lajos Polya
• Independent: Lorant Polya
• NDP: Beth Prokaska
• Independent: Spencer Rocchi
• Independent: Wallace Richard Rowat
• Independent: Julian Selody
• Independent: Hakim Sheriff
• Independent: Roger Sherwood
• Independent: Yogo Shimada
• Independent: Michael Skirzynski
• Independent: Julie St-Amand
• Independent: Pascal St-Amand
• Independent: Patrick Strzalkowski
• Independent: Daniel Stuckless
• Independent: Benjamin Teichman
• Independent: Sarah Thompson
• Independent: Darcy Vanderwater
• Independent: Elliot Wand
• Green Party: Mark Watson
• Independent: Michal Wieczorek
• Independent: David Zhu

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Ottawa’s Kimberley Johnson