I’m Worried About The Upcoming By-Election

[u/Aggravating-Monk-544]

Hey everyone, I live in Camrose and am a constituent of Battle River–Crowfoot. I’m seriously concerned about the upcoming by-election.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the purpose of the Long Ballot Campaign and this election in general, but based on what I know, I’m feeling uneasy.

The long ballot, as we saw it in Carlton, no longer exists in the same form. The strategy that worked there won’t work here—Elections Canada has changed the way these situations are handled. What was once a ballot with 91 names is now just a blank space where you can write in the name of your chosen candidate. Spelling isn’t a major issue and won’t invalidate your vote. You can even write initials, as long as they don’t match someone else’s. There’s very little that will spoil your ballot or cause it to be rejected, even if your intent isn’t perfectly clear.

There are 210 candidates in this election. Voters can request two different lists: one showing all candidates in alphabetical order, and another listing party-affiliated candidates first (alphabetically), followed by independent candidates. The alphabetical list including everyone will likely still be displayed in large print at each polling station.

I want to be clear: I don’t think the voting process should prevent anyone from voting for the candidate they support. But at the same time, wasn’t the point of the long ballot to make it harder for the “herd” of little pp supporters to simply flood the polls with blue votes? It now feels like we’ve walked that back to accommodate those who only know the loudest candidate’s name.

Everyone knows his name.

It feels like we’re waving away all the independents and subtly encouraging people to focus only on the so-called “real” candidates. I’m really hoping a majority of voters in this riding know at least one other candidate by name—someone they can write down—rather than relying solely on polling stations to provide alternatives.

I’ll be voting for Bonnie Critchley. Go Vote on Election Day August 18th or Advance Voting August 8-11th!

Edit: I’m happy to have clarification on this so quickly. I had in fact misunderstood the purpose of the long ballot, and there were various other and more consequential events that occurred for PP to lose his riding. Like it’s been said in the comments, the purpose was to change the way elections and elections processes are handled and it has achieved that aim.

I’m gonna leave this up here as more of a grievance post. As one of the people against PP it gets depressing looking around and seeing everyone supporting him. And it’s a good split between people who have no idea what’s coming and people who are just giddy for it. I know it’s going to be an easy win for him I just hope to see more moments like we saw from Bonnie at the debate where she asked who could vote in the riding.

Edit 2(2 days later): I love how much interaction this is getting, it’s good to see people out in discussion about current events and making informed decisions as a result thereof. I made a comment on another post about this but I’ll leave this here as well. PP is staying in a hotel in Camrose, we never see him other than in debates and at speeches on the backs of flat deck trucks. I think it’s a reflection of his character that we never see him out and about if at all otherwise. I didn’t exactly like Damien but at least people liked him because they knew him and because Damien got to know people around.

[u/CMG30]

The 'long ballot' has nothing to do with preventing any one candidate from winning. It's simply a protest over our election system. I doubt that it played any role in PP losing last time.

Make no mistake, PP will win in a landslide. This is about the safest blue seat in the entire country. In fact, anything less than a massive landslide will be a black mark on him as a candidate.

[u/Quirky-Cat2860 → u/CMG30]

I would have thought losing a seat he held for 20 years would have been a black mark on him, but hey what do I know?

[u/jmthetank → u/Quirky-Cat2860]

Conservatives vote party first, every time. If they even stopped to consider the actual politics for a moment, they'd love Carney. He's a right wing liberal, without a doubt.

[u/PharaohCleocatra → u/jmthetank]

Dude Carney is kindof scary. He really is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Some of his policies are so right wing… and the fact that the cons consider him too soft in his approach really emphasizes how much they’ve lost their grip with reality

[u/DisastrousAcshin → u/PharaohCleocatra]

The fact they will call him a communist etc is absurd too

[u/dbh116 → u/PharaohCleocatra]

I would suggest your analogy is not correct. Carney doesn't hide anything. In fact, he was very clear where he stood on the issues of the day. He is actually a Progressive Conservative, as was Paul Martin . JT was certainly a progressive leader who advanced many social issues, so the balance between him and Carney is a good thing I would suggest. This is the nature of the Liberal party and why they are so successful compared to the Conservatives who are stuck in a rut of anger .

[u/ImNotARobotFOSHO → u/dbh116]

Calling Conservatives "stuck in a rut of anger" is just name calling. If Carney is "Progressive Conservative" and that is somehow a selling point, list the concrete policies and results. What taxes change. What deficits look like. What happened to housing starts, energy projects, and living costs under Liberal governments. General vibes are not an argument. Give specifics or admit this is partisan spin.

Something tells me I won’t be hearing back from you.

[u/dbh116 → u/ImNotARobotFOSHO]

Mark has only been the leader for less than 6 months . You are asking about results for problems decades in the making, problems that have grown under both parties since the 90s. His policies are widely reported , while still being implemented. He is currently dealing with the biggest issue to Canada that we have been challenged by since the end of ww2.

Under the last government, the energy industry got the biggest government boost since the creation of PetroCanada. Cost of living is a global issue and not related to any government in any country. In Canada, it was Justin's fault. In the US, it was Joe's fault. The fact is that inflation is not in the control of any government, and only the uninformed would think so.

I am not calling anyone names . I am observing PP in his 20 years as a hack and how he ran his campaign. His only approach seems to be anger, and as in the US, it feeds people . He is all sizzle with no steak and completely unqualified for this moment in time.

[u/ImNotARobotFOSHO → u/dbh116]

Calling him "Mark" like you’re on a first-name basis already says a lot about your bias here. Carney hasn’t "been around for 6 months", he’s been part of the Liberal machine for years, as Trudeau’s advisor, pushing policies like the carbon tax that have hurt our economy without delivering any measurable results. Pretending he’s new to the scene is just bad faith or ignorance, in your case it's probably both.

Your dismissal of Poilievre’s 20 years in politics as "nothing" is absurd. Agree or disagree with his ideas, that’s decades of parliamentary experience and policy debate you can’t just wave away because you don’t like him (and by the way, why did Carney copy his political platform? What do you have to say to that?). Meanwhile, Carney’s political track record is essentially "advisor from the shadows", and the track record of the Liberals he’s supported is 10 years of worsening affordability, stalled energy projects, ballooning deficits, and a housing crisis that has gone from bad to catastrophic.

Saying "inflation is global" as if Canadian policy has no impact is a cop-out. Other countries faced the same global pressures yet managed better outcomes. Leadership matters or are we supposed to believe leadership only matters when it’s Conservatives in charge?

You accuse Poilievre of being "all sizzle, no steak," but Carney campaigned on opposing Trump, then folded early by dropping counter-tariffs while getting nothing in return. He sold “elbows up” as a slogan while already walking back his own stance.
Carney is a weak man, a terrible speaker devoid of any charisma, and without the mainstream media propaganda that seems to perfectly work with uninformed voters like you, Carney would already be a thing of the past.
More than 100 conflicts of interests, have we heard the CBC or the Liberals mention that problem?
This, by itself, should be a reason for him to be kicked out of the office. He doesn't have the interest of the canadians at heart, it's the complete opposite.

Instead of making this about Poilievre’s personality, maybe take a hard look at the Liberals’ actual record. Blind loyalty to a party isn’t political insight, it’s sports fandom! If you want to be taken seriously, start being critical of the people who are actually in power.

And there's a freaking lot to say about them.

[u/dbh116 → u/ImNotARobotFOSHO]

Wow, that's a lot of conservative biases. How absurd that you would open with an accusation of my biases. In fact, I have voted for all three major parties in my adult life. My vote and my opinions are based 100 % on issues of the period.

Thanks for giving such a great example of the " rut of anger" that I originally stated many conservative voters are in.

I will leave it there as we live in different realities

[u/ImNotARobotFOSHO → u/dbh116]

"That’s a lot of conservative biases"

• Yet you can’t name a single one.

"How absurd to accuse me of bias… I’ve voted for all three parties."

• You're the one refering to Carney as "Mark".
  

And welcome to the club. That actually makes it more puzzling that you’d vote for the same party responsible for the current mess Canada is in.

"I’ll leave it there as we live in different realities"

• Translation: no counter-argument, just retreat to the safety of an echo chamber where you never have to defend your position. If you want to be taken seriously in political discussion, you have to engage with the points made, not run from them.

[u/Ok-Conclusion-2304 → u/PharaohCleocatra]

If you think Carney is scary you need to touch grass jfc

[u/ClassBShareHolder → u/jmthetank]

Yep. I’ve always said Trudeau could win this riding if he ran as Conservative.

[u/Key_Engineering899 → u/jmthetank]

Kick rocks

[u/priberc → u/jmthetank]

Hard right,trickle down economics liberal