'This is a scam': Poilievre wants rules changed to stop long ballot protests

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he wants Canada's election laws changed to prevent long ballot protests as he is set to face another one next month.

"We have to take action because this is a scam. It is unfair, it is unjust and it must stop," Poilievre said of the long ballot protests that have occurred in recent years — including in Poilievre's riding this past election.

The Conservative leader's comments came during a town hall in Stettler, Alta., last week. Stettler is a community in the riding of Battle River-Crowfoot where Poilievre is running to regain a seat in the House of Commons.

Clips of the event were posted online by a local news outlet, Hometown Media.

An electoral reform advocacy group — known as the Longest Ballot Committee — has been organizing dozens of candidates to run in byelections in recent years, resulting in metre-long ballots that have caused delays in vote counting and confounded some voters.

The group wants to put a citizens' assembly in charge of electoral reform and says political parties are too reluctant to make government more representative of the electorate.

After targeting Poilievre's former riding of Carleton, the group is now aiming to sign up 200 candidates in Battle River-Crowfoot — more than double the 91 that ran in Carleton in April.

Poilievre said there were a number of changes that could prevent such protests from occurring. But he specifically suggested requiring 1,000 signatures to run, and ensuring that voters can only sign one nomination form.

"That would make it impossible for 200 people to go out and have their names piled onto the [candidate] list," Poilievre told the crowd in Stettler last week.

"There are a number of other things that you could do that would make it so that only real candidates who are truly running to put their name forward in our democracy are on that list."

Candidates need 100 signatures from voters in their riding to secure a nomination and electors are not prevented from signing multiple forms.

The Longest Ballot Committee rebuked Poilievre's suggestions, saying such a large increase in required signatures would have a "negative impact on Canadian democracy."

"This ill-conceived and self-serving electoral reform proposal by [Poilievre] is downright dangerous, and reinforces our conviction that politicians are not well suited to decide the rules of their own elections," the group said in a statement.

It said it would continue to use long ballots as a form of protest as "long as we are legally permitted to do so."