Poilievre calls for law to block long ballot protests ahead of Alberta byelection
Poilievre calls for law to block long ballot protests that 'abuse' democracy
If we're opening up the electoral reform can of worms can we get the important parts too? You know, like proportional representation? Or is Poilievre too scared of strong democracy to talk about that?
How about we change it so you have to LIVE in the riding you're running in?
PP is the parachute candidate 🤡
For a year, you know, to establish yourself there
So, he wants to improve democracy by being able to pre-approve who is allowed to run against him?
It’s not enough that Pierre runs in the safest byelection in the country, the runway has to be bubble wrapped as well.
“These aren’t real candidates. They aren’t campaigning. They aren’t engaging with constituents,” Poilievre wrote.
Boy, that sounds a whole lot like how none of the CPC candidates showed up to any of my local debates or showed up on a single local news or radio program, or took a single interview.
Frankly, I don't think we should be limited from running for office based on their percieved level of seriousness or that it's a protest. That's a slippery slope right there. We can increase the signatures or whatever, but it's still not going to be particularly useful and will primarily increase the floor of how much money you need to actually campaign.
Can we get a law to ban opportunist right-wing dickbags with no skills or ideas?
Before anyone objects: not really, I'm just very sick of this man.
Tying immigration to housing completions seems better than "housing shouldn't fall in value".
Housing completions is a fake statistic and is functionally the same as "housing shouldn't fall in value." Dont be fooled.
E.g. last two years Vancouver BC led North America for the most housing starts, and was among the highest in the developed world.
Because the price was increasing thanks to investors and speculators.
Now that the price increase has cooled though? All of the developers simply stop building. Since feb 2025, housing starts in Vancouver are down by almost 50%.
The irony of him making his complaint after he moved to this area just so he could guarantee his election. That's a way bigger problem. Infinitely bigger
The Longest Ballot Committee is also seeking a change to the electoral system.
It wants a citizens’ assembly put in charge of crafting a new electoral system, and argues that political parties are reluctant to make the government more representative of a diverse electorate.
This is a good thing to fight for. PP's whingy excuse is not.
I agree, it's a hard problem to solve because the people who get into power with the current system have the least incentive to change it.
So, no one should be allowed to run against him, without his permission?
How about we ban these by-elections that only exist to give a loser a second chance. Idgaf I'd it's libs, cins, NDP, bloc, crab people, no one should get to run a second time just because they are party leader.
Not to mention this asshole getting a do-over is costing the Canadian taxpayer a bit of money. I expect a personal thank you note for the charity, Poilievre.
How do we fill the seat then?
Awwwww, muffin.
Just donated to Critchley. 😄
To be fair. It's Alberta.
There's a not insignificant chance that if someone named Peter Polliver was on the ballot, a number of albertans would be too irritated by the original's quebecois name and immediately vote for the "proper canadian" guy instead.
He is not Quebecois, he does not even speak French with a Quebecois accent.
No. But his name is french, and that would be enough for uneducated Albertans. That's the joke.
It's all fake, like his whole persona. He is a Chameleon who has 3 word slogans...
@Sunshine When is this irrelevant, unelectable turd going to shut the fuck up?
I call for Polievre to go fuck himself!
Eh, Im not conservative but I do think this is a valid bipartisan criticism.
If they pulled this stunt with a liberal leaning byelection Id consider it a greasy trick.
I have no issue with putting a cap on ballot names via some kind of reasonable system (IE if you get more than x candidates, then the top y candidates can only go on the ballot based on who has the most vouches or whatever)
That way you can avoid dozens and dozens of randos flooding the ballot to confuse people. It's a valid hole to patch in our system that both sides should be on board with fixing in a reasonable way.
There is virtually no evidence that anyone who has voted in a riding with a “longest ballot” was ever confused.
Bruce Fanjoy won in the Carleton riding with 50.9% of the vote — a majority. The highest vote count for the any of the independent candidates was a whopping 57 votes — out of 86 060 total votes. That’s a whopping 0.06% of the vote.
In fact if you count only those candidates running either as an independent OR as “Not Affiliated” (so taking out anyone running for a party, including the Rhino Party and Marijuana Party candidates who did worse than a handful of the independent candidates), the longest ballot candidates IN TOTAL had a massive 0.99% of the vote. They didn’t even crack 1%.
Honestly, there are no electoral shenanigans to get worked up over here. The outcome was overwhelming, and Bruce Fanjoy (Liberal) didn’t seem to have any problems getting a plurality of votes to win.
I do not think you know how democracy works, putting a cap on anything during an election (other than one vote for one person) is not letting the voice of the people to be heard. Putting a cap on how many forms someone can sign is wrong as well. I personally have never signed any longest ballot paper but I have signed multiple papers for people, I am guessing my place got put down as a willing signature giver as I signed a bunch of PPC papers for Saskatoon people until either the friends trying to get enough signatures ran out or I put up a pride flag. Not that I would ever vote for the PPC but because I believe in democracy, if people want to try their hand go for it.