The number of candidates running in an August byelection the Conservative Party of Canada hopes will restore its leader’s position in the House of Commons has surpassed 200.
To manage the record-breaking number, Elections Canada announced Monday that next month’s byelection will have an adapted ballot.
IMPORTANT❕ Elections Canada will use an adapted ballot for the by-election in Battle River–Crowfoot 🗳️
— Elections Canada (@ElectionsCan_E) July 28, 2025
Electors will need to write the name of the candidate they are voting for on the ballot. https://t.co/UX6ANA8lLt pic.twitter.com/lXxzAU906z
Elections Canada has listed 209 confirmed candidates in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot as of Monday morning, only seven of which have political party affiliations. Monday is the close of nominations for the Aug. 18 byelection, and a complete list of candidates will be available Wednesday, the elections agency said.
The vast majority of candidates who’ve signed up to run are listed as independents.
The riding has since been targeted by the electoral reform advocacy group The Longest Ballot Committee, which has also participated in several previous high-stakes byelections. It also ran a campaign in Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s former riding during the April general election, where the ballot racked up 91 candidates.
Conservative candidates have held the federal riding in Battle River—Crowfoot since 2004, including Damien Kurek, who won the April general election with 83 per cent of the vote.
The farmer-by-trade had held the seat since 2019 but resigned in the weeks after the election — and on the first day he was allowed to do so, according to parliamentary procedure — so Poilievre could run to replace him.
Poilievre lost the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, which he’d held for more than 20 years, to Liberal political rookie Bruce Fanjoy. While he’s still Conservative leader, losing his seat in the House of Commons means Poilievre has been unable to participate in Parliament.
In an interview with CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos, Kurek said his decision to resign was a way to "practically serve" his riding and the country.
In Battle River—Crowfoot, where The Longest Ballot Committee planned to break records for the number of registered candidates, group spokesperson Tomas Szuchewycz is listed as the “name of official agent” on 199 of the 209 nominations.
With 91 names on the ballot in Carleton in April, each ballot was about one metre long, and Elections Canada estimated it could take about three times as long to count them, factoring the time it took to unfold and tally each one.
To accommodate the significant list of candidates, Elections Canada has created an adapted ballot, similar to a special ballot, allowing voters to write the name of the person they’re voting for.
“This adapted ballot will replace the typical list-style ballot, on which electors mark a blank circle next to the name of their candidate of choice,” the Elections Canada website states. “The adapted ballot will retain the safeguards of a typical ballot.”
Elections Canada also stated a list of all the candidates will still be provided to voters.
Poilievre called on the government last week to pass legislation to prevent actions like those taken by The Longest Ballot Committee, calling the stunt “a deliberate attempt to manipulate the rules,” and “a blatant abuse” of the electoral system in an open letter to House leader Steven MacKinnon.
Some independent candidates, meanwhile, told CTV News they signed up out of frustration with Kurek's resignation, saying they’d elected the candidate and not necessarily the party at large.
Party leaders in Canada are expected to have a seat in the House or seek one “as soon as possible,” according to the House of Commons Procedure and Practice. But just how “soon” has varied in the past.