Higher advance poll turnout in Alberta by-election as Poilievre seeks Commons return

Toronto: set ahead polls for a bye-election witnessed a higher widening than the federal soldier election this twelvemonth as Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre attempts to return to the House of Commons.

Poilievre is the party candidate from the riding (as constituencies are called in Canada) of Battle River-Crowfoot in the province of Alberta. He is trying to regain a seat in Parliament after suffering a shock defeat from Carleton in Ontario in the April Federal election.

While Battle River-Crowfoot is considered a safe Conservative seat in rural Alberta, the high-profile nature of the by-election, scheduled for Monday, August 18, has resulted in a spike in early voter turnout.

In a release on Wednesday, Elections Canada 14454 voters participated in the advanced polls held from Friday to this Monday.

“These is an estimate. Some polls may not have reported yet,” it added.

The early turnout is already 220 higher than that recorded in the Federal election, when Conservative candidate Damien Kurek swept to victory with nearly 83 per cent of the vote share, the outlet CTV News reported. Kurek later resigned the seat so Poilievre could be re-elected to the House.

The by-election will also witness the largest number of candidates participating in the contest, with 214 registered. That’s part of a campaign by the so-called Longest Ballot Committee to protest Canada’s electoral system. That Committee was also involved in the Carleton election, which 81 candidates.

However, the y-election will not feature the longest ballot in Canadian history as Elections Canada has announced it will feature an “adapted ballot” with a blank space for the voter to write the name or initials of the candidate of their choice.

On its website, Elections Canada said, “This is due to a higher than usual number of candidates and limitations of the large ballots that have been used in some previous elections.”

This will replace the typical list-style ballot used for elections.

Poilievre is expected to handily win the by-election on Monday and will return to the House, where Andrew Scheer has been the interim leader of the Conservatives in his absence.

Poilievre was expected to lead by his party to a majority victory in the Federal election, as polls in December 2024 suggested the Conservatives led the ruling Liberals by at least double digits. However, once the extremely unpopular incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to resign and replace with Mark Carney, the ruling party managed to turn the tables.

The final result in April kept Carney was PM, heading a minority Government with the Liberals taking 169 seats as against 144 for the rival Conservatives.

---

---