‘It was really easy’: Alberta byelection advance polls open with more than 200 candidates

Residents of Battle River-Crowfoot began casting advanced votes in the byelection where over 200 candidates are registered. CTV’s Kathy Le has more.

A steady stream of people have shuffled in and out of the lone advance voting station in Drumheller, Alta., one of the towns in the sprawling rural riding of Battle River–Crowfoot, where federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre hopes to win and restore his position in the House of Commons.

The voters CTV News spoke with say the process has been easy.

“It was pretty straightforward. I had done my preparation. I knew where the different candidates were coming from,” said Roger Hanm.

Another voter, Brad Luchak, was in agreement.

“(It was) really easy today,” he said. “It was no problem at all.”

There are 214 candidates registered in the byelection, making it the largest number of candidates on a federal ballot in Canadian history. Those running include Poilievre, Liberal candidate Darcy Spady, NDP candidate Katherine Swampy, Jonathan Bridges of the People’s Party of Canada, Ashley MacDonald of the Green Party and independent candidate Bonnie Critchley.

To ensure the voting process goes smoothly, Elections Canada created an adapted ballot, meaning for the first time ever, voters must fill out a blank ballot with the name of their preferred candidate.

Voter Thomas Laffin says they had references to ensure they got the name of the candidates spelled correctly.

“You’ve got your big book there on the side that has all the 214-some-odd names, and then they have the small one that has the ones that are connected to a party,” he said.

The majority of candidates running in the traditionally Conservative Alberta riding are sponsored by the advocacy group the Longest Ballot Committee, who are protesting the First-past-the-post (FPTP) system and wanting electoral reform.

The group ran a campaign in Poilievre’s former Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, where he lost his long-held seat during the general election in April. The ballot had 91 candidates.

The Conservative leader is looking to get back into Parliament, given a chance after former MP Damien Kurek, who won the riding in a landslide with 83 per cent of the vote, stepped aside.

Lori Williams, political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary, says it’s expected that Pierre will win the byelection.

“Nobody’s expecting him to lose the by election. But if he doesn’t win it by close to 83 per cent, then questions are starting or going to start being raised,” she said. “That will feed into his return to the house in the fall and into his leadership review in the new year.”

Poilievre has long expressed frustration about the Longest Ballot Committee, calling its actions a “blatant abuse” of electoral democracy. During an unrelated press conference in Calgary Thursday, the Conservative leader said his party is proposing to change electoral laws to “make sure that this longest stunt never happens again.

While voter Adrine Giles thought the voting process was simple, she wasn’t too keen with all the candidates running.

“I wasn’t happy to have, you know, so many candidates. It’s just not really a good idea. You just confuse people,” she said.

Giles wouldn’t reveal who she voted for, but confirmed it wasn’t Poilievre.

“We need a local person to represent us,” she said. “We’re not going to see him. He’s not going to do anything for us here.”

Some other voters, like Art Bonaguro, disagree.

“I know he doesn’t live in the riding, but the leader of the party really needs a seat in the house to do anything,” he said. “So that’s where my vote went.