An Affront To Electoral Democracy?

There is a good chance that a federal election in Toronto will have 100 candidate names on the ballot. Is this a risky move for the participants in The Longest Ballot campaign?

What will be the response to a 100 candidate ballot?

Hello friends,

We did it!!! Thank you everyone, we have more than 100 candidates. Congrats to everyone involved! 🥳🥳🥳

Now the the boring part:

The Toronto by-election might be called earlier than we expected, so I'm sending out instructions for becoming a candidate: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DY6JeS41KheWJxSfMjZ5tJ8qdSYgK3Tw?usp=drive_link

Complete these steps as soon as possible! And please reach out if you have any questions

Some background…

On November 30, 2023, my name appeared on the ballot of the Kitchener Centre provincial by-election as the Ontario Libertarian Party candidate. It was one of 18 names on the ballot which included average citizens who were encouraged and supported by a group called the Longest Ballot to register as a candidate. Their motivations to field a large number of candidates for election ballots was and is unknown to me, but their campaign is intriguing.

The Longest Ballot is pursuing the goal for an upcoming federal by-election in downtown Toronto to reach a 100 candidate ballot. Yesterday, I received email above.

If they success in stacking the ballot with over 100 names, what will this mean for “electoral democracy”?

Are participating candidates putting themselves at potential risk?

How valuable is your vote?

Citizens’ attitudes range widely about their ability to vote. These include:

• My vote is useless because it has no effect on election outcomes or the subsequent fulfillment of election promises. Kitchener Centre had a 27% voter turnout which suggests many eligible voters won’t waste their time to vote.

• Modern elections are corrupted and heavily influenced by powerful special interest groups. I am one voter who believes this to be true. Labour unions are especially privileged and well-positioned to sway election outcomes in favour of their leaders and members at the expense of everyone else.

• The candidate choices do not represent my personal values and priorities. I also believe this to be true which is why I have become a candidate in ten elections.  I believe that Canada’s #1 problem is Too Much Government and my name as a Libertarian candidate gives citizens like me a chance to vote for a Less Government option.

• Some citizens consider elections to be nothing more than (boring) “political threater” to make the gullible believe that the “right to vote” is a privilege to be valued highly. There are much better forms of entertainment than to read election literature or watch political candidates stumble over questions at “All Candidates Debates”.

• Others know that the real power of government resides within the unelected bureaucracies of government. How will a single vote every 4 years for one local person, the elected riding MP, ensure that his or her ~120,000 constituents can be well represented in Ottawa. After all, 337 other elected MPs with competing interests will be trying to represent their constituents too, and “party solidarity” when voting on Parliamentary Bills always takes presedent over the interests of any one MP. Besides, each MP must also compete for the attention of the real power brokers in the bureaucracy with hundreds of paid lobbyists who are also “working their contacts” in Ottawa.

Do I, or don’t I?

If the Longest Ballot group succeeds in fielding 100 candates, the corporate media will likely treat this as an insignificant prank at the expense of “serious-minded” Canadian voters and give it a passing mention. Alternative media will have a field day playing it up as evidence that a citizen revolt against the “political class” is building and backed by “extreme right-wing radicals”.

The risks of participating in the Longest Ballot are unknown but the Trucker Convoy episode of two years ago may suggest a few.

Can we expect Justin Trudeau to address the “Ballot 100” as a “fringe minority who are extreme radicals and unacceptable to Canada”?

Will Christia Freeland freeze the bank accounts of all participants and arrest them under the trumped-up charge of “insurrection for the purpose of undermining Canadian democracy”?

The rules and practices of Canada’s “NEW NORMAL”, post-”BUILD BACK BETTER” Canada looms heavily on my mind.

I wonder what the Coutts Four would advise me with respect to registering as a candidate through The Longest Ballot?