Over 200 candidates sign up for Poilievre’s byelection — doubling previous record

>More than 200 candidates, mostly associated with a group of electoral reform advocates, have signed up to run in an upcoming federal byelection next month. The number more than doubles the previous record on a single ballot.

>Former Alberta MP Damien Kurek vacated his seat in Battle River-Crowfoot to give Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a chance to rejoin the House of Commons. Poilievre lost his longtime Carleton riding in April’s general election.

>A group known as the Longest Ballot Committee has been organizing candidates to run in byelections in recent years in an effort to push for electoral reform.

>The committee’s organizers want to put a citizens’ assembly in charge of electoral reform and say political parties are too reluctant to make government more representative of the electorate.

>As of Sunday evening, 209 candidates had registered to run in Battle River-Crowfoot, exceeding than committee’s goal of 200.

>That’s more than double the previous record of 91 which has occurred twice in the past year: during a byelection in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun last September and Carleton during the last general election.

!ping Can