More than 200 names will be on the ballot as advance voting opens Aug. 8 in Alberta’s Battle River—Crowfoot byelection, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre running for a seat in Parliament after losing his Ontario seat in late April.
As voting opens ahead of the Aug. 18 byelection date, Poilievre faces Liberal candidate Darcy Spady, New Democratic Party candidate Katherine Swampy, Green Party candidate Ashley MacDonald, and independent Bonnie Critchley, and candidates from the People’s Party of Canada, the Libertarian Party, the Christian Heritage Party, and the United Party of Canada, as well as hundreds of other candidates, after the riding was targeted by the Longest Ballot Committee, an activist group that seeks electoral reform.
Elections Canada announced July 28 that due to the large number of candidates, voters will have to write in the name of who they want to vote for, instead of selecting their choice on a list. Elections Canada says voters’ selections will still count if there are spelling mistakes as long as the voting intention is clear, and voters are also permitted to bring a friend or family member to the polls to assist or receive help from election workers.
Advance voting will run until Aug. 10, with polling stations open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time. Voting is also available until Aug. 12 at the riding’s local Elections Canada office. Registration to submit a mail-in ballot must be done by Aug. 12.
Poilievre and Tory MP and shadow minister for democratic reform Michael Cooper penned a letter to the leader of the government in the House of Commons July 22, calling the Longest Ballot Committee’s actions an “abuse of our democratic system” and asking for the Carney government to advance legislation when Parliament reconvenes in September. Among the specifics Poilievre and Cooper asked for are limiting official agents to only representing one candidate, allowing signatories to only sign for one candidate, and requiring candidates to obtain signatures from at least 0.5 percent of a riding’s residents instead of the current requirement of 100 individual signatures.
For its part, the Carney government has also responded, with Leader of the Government in the House of Commons Steven MacKinnon’s office saying in response to Poilievre and Cooper’s letter that he shares some of their concerns and is studying the matter.
Poilievre narrowly lost reelection in his former seat of Carleton in April, which he'd held for 21 years, after facing 90 candidates backed by the Longest Ballot Committee. His chance to get back into Parliament via the seat in Battle River—Crowfoot occurred when Conservative MP Damien Kurek stepped down from his seat in the riding in June to allow Poilievre to do so, triggering a byelection.
Kurek first rode to office in 2019 with more than 85 percent of the vote, and again with 71 percent of the vote in 2021 and more than 82 percent in 2025.
The Battle River—Crowfoot riding is located in the eastern part of central Alberta and has a population of approximately 107,000 as of the last available figures from Statistics Canada, as well as an area of around 52,000 square kilometers. It is primarily a rural riding, with its biggest city of Camrose at a population of only 19,000.
