Elections Canada opts for write-in ballots over confronting longest ballot stunt
The Longest Ballot Committee isn’t grassroots activism—it’s institutionalized trolling.

For the second time in just a few months, the so-called Longest Ballot Committee has targeted the Conservatives—this time in Battle River–Crowfoot, where over 200 candidates have flooded the ballot, many with no intention of campaigning or even showing up.
Their target? Once again, Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, whose name now won’t even appear on the ballot. Poilievre's April re-election campaign in Ottawa-Carleton was hit with the same meddling, with 90-plus names on the ballot when he lost his seat to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy.
Instead of investigating this coordinated stunt to jam the democratic process, Elections Canada is enabling it—by scrapping printed ballots and forcing voters to write in their choice by hand. Rather than scroll through a 12-foot ballot of nobodies, voters will be handed a blank sheet and told to write in their candidate’s name.
And Poilievre’s name? Not exactly easy to spell. This change only increases the chances of disqualified or miscounted ballots for the very person the activists are trying to undermine.
This isn’t grassroots activism—it’s institutionalized trolling. And Elections Canada’s response is to hand the trolls a pen and let them redraw the rules.
In a functioning democracy, there would be consequences for ballot sabotage. In Trudeau–Carney’s Canada? The system bends to accommodate it.
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Alberta Bureau Chief for Rebel News and host of the weekly The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. She's a mother of three, conservative activist, and the author of best-selling books including Stop Notley.
COMMENTS
-
Wayne Currie commented 2025-07-30 02:28:07 -0400In 1995 Quebec held a referendum to separate from Canada. There were reports that scrutineers rejected any votes cast for remaining in Canada where the X was not geometrically perfect or if it strayed outside the box by only a smidgen. That was 30 years ago when the country was theoretically democratic. Today in our dictatorship, what are the odds that scrutineers will reject ballots misspelling Poilievre’s name, or confuse his name with that of another candidate? -
Robert Pariseau commented 2025-07-29 10:12:33 -0400Try that in a riding with a star Liberal candidate. Dead in its tracks within hours.
-
Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2025-07-29 00:46:46 -0400I grew up in a Canada that was a constitutional monarchy. Evidently, we are now a banana republic. -
Bruce Atchison commented 2025-07-28 19:34:51 -0400What diabolical trickery! It shows we can’t get decent laws made anymore. The Liberals are the Devil’s hands and they openly make a mockery of fairness.