Liberal supporters in the Papineau electoral district may need a minute to find Justin Trudeau’s name on the ballot on Oct 19. The riding, along with Edmonton Strathcona, has 10 candidates vying for a seat in Parliament, more than any of the other ridings in Canada.
Located in Montreal, the Papineau riding has been held by the Liberal Party leader since 2008, and faces competition not just from the NDP, Conservative Party, Bloc Québécois and Green Party, but candidates representing the Rhinoceros Party, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, and three others who aren’t connected to any particular party.
According to the final list of confirmed candidates from Elections Canada, there are nearly 350 candidates running for the House of Commons without party affiliation or for lesser-known groups such as the Progressive Canadian Party and the Pirate Party of Canada. The complete list, released Wednesday, features the 1,800 confirmed candidates for an election campaign that’s been characterized by neck-and-neck races and surprising turnover as many candidates resigned following social media snafus.
However, Canada’s three largest parties have all managed to get a name on the ballot in every single riding.
Both the NDP and Conservatives will have a candidate in each of the 338 electoral districts. The Liberals also managed to get a candidate confirmed by Elections Canada in each of the ridings. However, the candidate for Victoria, B.C., Cheryl Thomas, resigned after offensive comments she made on social media about Jewish and Muslim communities and 9/11 surfaced. Thomas will remain on the ballot for the Liberals since the deadline for replacing a candidate, Sept. 28., had already passed. But Thomas has said if she wins the seat, she will give it up.
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The Green Party is running a candidate in 336 of the 338 districts while in Quebec, the Bloc Québécois has a name on the ballot for each of the 78 districts.
Elections Canada also released the “date of receipt notification” for each candidate. In other words, it’s when the candidates get the official blessing from Elections Canada, confirming that their papers are all in order and their name will be on the ballot on Oct. 19. It isn’t necessarily related to when the nomination papers were filed, since incomplete documents could delay the process. However, looking at when the parties received the notices sheds some light on how quickly they managed to find people to run in ridings and get their complete filings in order quickly.
The Conservatives called the election on Aug. 2, and much has been made of how they’re likely to benefit from the historically long election period since they have the most money in their war chest. Right out of the gate, they had a number of candidates confirmed through the process with a handful of notifications on Aug. 7 and Aug 8. As the notifications trickled in for the Liberals and the NDP, the Conservatives saw their numbers jump over the course of the week.
Further proof of the well-oiled Conservative election machine? The party received its final receipt of notification for a candidate on Sept. 24, days before the final deadline for nominations, while the Liberals and NDP received confirmations up until Sept. 28.