In Carleton, where Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is fighting to keep his seat, voters are wrestling with a ballot so comically oversized it’s become the talk of Canada’s federal election. Measuring a full meter long and packing 91 candidates, the thing is less a voting slip than a scroll you’d expect to find in a medieval library. Elections Canada has called it the longest ballot in the country’s history, and it’s turning a routine trip to the polls into a test of patience, dexterity, and maybe a bit of origami skill.
The chaos stems from a quirky loophole in federal election rules. To get on the ballot in an urban riding like Carleton, a candidate needs just 100 signatures from local electors. That’s it. No heavy vetting, no big cash deposit. It’s a low bar, and a group calling itself the Longest Ballot Committee has pole-vaulted over it with gusto, fielding 84 independent candidates to join the seven from recognized parties, including Poilievre. The result? A voting sheet that could double as a table runner.
On April 16, Elections Canada issued a statement confirming the ballot’s record-breaking size and the logistical headaches it’s causing. Poll workers are taping multiple pages together to make one continuous sheet, which voters then have to fold like a road map to fit into ballot boxes. Some stations have set up extra tables just to give people space to unfurl the thing. In a rare move, the agency granted Carleton a special exception to start counting advance votes six hours before polls close, a nod to the sheer time it’ll take to tally marks on a document this unwieldy.
The Longest Ballot Committee, in a press release on April 18, said their goal is to protest Canada’s first-past-the-post system, arguing it distorts voter choice. They’re not wrong that the system has flaws—academics have been picking it apart for years—but their stunt has left locals more annoyed than enlightened. Voters trudging to advance polls, open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., are spending minutes just scanning the names, many of which sound suspiciously like they were plucked from a phone book or a bad improv sketch.
Elections Canada’s rules haven’t budged since the signature threshold was set decades ago, and the agency’s April 16 update noted that no laws were broken in this ballot bonanza. Still, the spectacle has sparked grumbling about voter suppression, though no official complaints have been lodged. The agency’s hands are tied unless Parliament tightens the nomination process, which isn’t happening before ballots are counted.
In Carleton, Poilievre’s name sits alongside the 90 others, his re-election bid now tangled in a paper trail nobody saw coming. Polls close on election day, and the counting—good luck to the scrutineers—will begin. For now, voters are left folding, scanning, and muttering about a ballot that’s less a democratic tool and more a test of endurance.
Carleton’s ballot has 91 candidates, including 84 independents and seven from registered parties. The riding’s advance vote counting begins six hours before polls close, per Elections Canada’s April 16 directive. The Longest Ballot Committee claims responsibility for the independents, citing a protest against first-past-the-post. Federal rules require 100 signatures for urban riding candidates.