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Today’s byelection in Toronto-St. Paul’s has an absolutely monstrous ballot. The image was snapped by a voter (which you’re not supposed to do) and posted to social media by Steve Paikin, the host of TVO’s current affairs program, The Agenda.
The ballot includes 75 candidates with no party affiliation who haven’t even bothered to campaign. They were put there by the Longest Ballot Committee, an activist group protesting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inaction on electoral reform.
There’s apparently nothing in Canadian election law to prevent dozens of independent candidates from being placed onto a ballot, even if they don’t live in the riding and all list the exact same official agent.
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It’s a rule of thumb in political journalism that byelections generally don’t have any wider lessons. But the Monday byelection in Toronto-St. Paul’s might be different if only for the fact that a Liberal loss in the riding would be jaw-droppingly unexpected.
It’s been a safe Liberal seat since 1993, and in the 2021 election went 49.22 per cent for the Liberals, with the Conservatives in second place at 25.3 per cent. But some polls are showing that the riding could go for the Tories, which is why the Liberal Party has thrown absolutely everything they can at a race that should have been a cake walk.
Rumours of a Justin Trudeau resignation are nothing new, but the word is that if the Liberals somehow lose Toronto-St. Paul’s, a panicked caucus might find the backbone to try and force him out.
https://twitter.com/spaikin/status/1805271503069659470/photo/1
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