Longest Ballot Committee



The Longest Ballot Committee is a political movement in Canada, at one time affiliated with the Rhinoceros Party, known for flooding ballots with a large number of independent candidates in protest of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system and other electoral reform related issues. The group has gained national attention, most notably during the 2022 Mississauga—Lakeshore federal by-election, the 2023 Winnipeg South Centre federal by-election, and the 2024 Toronto—St. Paul's federal by-election.

The committee's actions have prompted amendments to election laws to accommodate a greater number of names on the ballots and generated significant controversy.

In the June 2024 Toronto—St. Paul's federal by-election, it took hours for Elections Canada workers to count all the ballots. While polls closed at 8:30 p.m. ET, the final results weren't known until about 4:30 a.m. ... The agency said it was bogged down because there were dozens of candidates on the unwieldy, nearly metre (yard) long ballot — some of whom were proportional representation activists running as a protest to the country's first-past-the-post voting system.

Elections in which the Longest Ballot Committee participated

 * 1) 2021 Canadian federal election, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital: 21 candidate  names on the ballot
 * 2) 2022  Mississauga-Lakeshore federal by-election: 40 candidate names on the ballot
 * 3) 2023 Winnipeg South Centre federal by-election: 48 candidate names on the ballot
 * 4) 2023 Kitchener Centre provincial by-election, 18 candidate names on the ballot
 * 5) 2024 Toronto St. Paul's federal by-election: 84 candidate names on the ballot