The Indian Panorama

Tag: Pierre Poilievre

  • Longest Ballot Paper campaign is not leaving Pierre Poilievre alone, as Battle River-Crowfoot is all set to script history on August 18

    Longest Ballot Paper campaign is not leaving Pierre Poilievre alone, as Battle River-Crowfoot is all set to script history on August 18

    • 108 candidates have registered so far, beating the previous record of 91

    By Prabhjot Singh

    TORONTO (TIP): Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is poised to enter the record books for contesting two consecutive elections with a record number of candidates on the ballot. While the number of candidates in Carleton in April was 91, it is inching towards the triple figure in River Battle-Crowfoot.

    The number of candidates in an election for MP running into a three-figure mark would be historic, and Battle River-Crowfoot is all set to achieve it.

    After Pierre Poilievre lost to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy by 4,513 votes in the last general elections on April 28 in Carleton, a riding that had its boundaries redrawn after the results of the 2021 Canadian census, he decided to run in a byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot in Alberta to regain a seat in the House of Commons. Conservative MP Damien Kurek, who has held the riding since 2019 and won re-election by more than 46,000 votes, quit his seat to make room for the party leader to enter the lower House of Parliament.

    His defeat in Carleton did not bring an end to a protest movement, as the Longest Ballot Committee reiterated its intention to target the byelection in the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot. The group that spearheaded the Longest Ballot Paper campaign in Carleton has now set a target of getting 200 names on the ballot paper when the riding witnesses a by-election on August 18. With the deadline for filing nomination papers still 12 days away, 74 candidates of the Longest Ballot campaign have already been registered as candidates for the Battle River-Crowfoot riding. Until today, 78 candidates have filed their nominations. The Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, is one of them. The Liberal Party and the NDP have yet to officially register their candidates for the by-election.

    The Longest Ballot Committee (LBC) is still short, however, of the group’s objective to run 200 candidates in the byelection. The movement opposes the first-past-the-post system and is calling for electoral reform. Voters in the Ottawa riding of Carleton during the April 28 general election had 91 names to choose from on their ballots as the group targeted Poilievre’s long-held seat.

    The LBC came into being to protest Canada’s first-past-the-post system. It fielded over 90 candidates in Carleton. The ballots were nearly a meter long and had to be folded multiple times to fit into voting boxes. Canada does not use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for polling.

    The longest ballot movement is linked to the satirical Rhinoceros Party of Canada, which was founded in 1963 and has policies and plans like making “Sorry” the new official motto of Canada and a pledge to open “tax havens” in all provinces. The independent and Rhinoceros Party-aligned candidates received 817 votes on April 28, while Fanjoy’s margin of victory over Poilievre was 4,315 votes.

    The LBC laid out its plan in an email sent to supporters, saying the riding of Battle River-Crowfoot “needs 200 candidates” and the group will “do our best to make a long ballot happen.” The group also called for those living in or near the riding to help collect nomination signatures for the candidates because each person needs 100 local voters’ signatures to be nominated. Pierre Poilievre wants this number to be raised.

    The move mirrors the group’s targeting of the Ottawa-area Carleton riding that Poilievre lost in the April 28 election to Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy. Fanjoy received 50.8 per cent of the vote in the riding, while Poilievre received 45.8 per cent, coming in second for the first time since he was first elected in 2004.

    It is not Pierre Poilievre alone whose name will appear on the longest ballot paper in four months after he unsuccessfully contested in Carleton. Some of the contestants from the Carlton election may also be the candidates in the Battle River-Crowfoot as well.

    One name that is a constant is Tomas Szuchewycz, who served as the official agent for Longest Ballot participants in Carleton and has the same role in this byelection. It’s the agent’s job to manage the campaign’s finances and report back to Elections Canada. Pierre Poilievre has not taken the protest movement well. He assailed the move in his election campaigning. “We need to get rid of this long ballot,” he was quoted by the media as saying, thus maintaining that there’s “no justification for it.” He, instead, suggested increasing the number of signatures required to be able to run as a candidate.

  • War of attrition for political supremacy is getting murkier

    ​

    By Prabhjot Singh

    “As Canada approaches its federal election on April 28, 2025, the two leading contenders, Prime Minister Mark Carney of the Liberal Party and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, are under increased scrutiny. Carney, who succeeded Justin Trudeau, faces allegations of plagiarizing parts of his 1995 Oxford University thesis, with claims of uncredited use of work by scholars like Michael E. Porter. His previous role at Brookfield Asset Management has also drawn attention due to the firm’s use of tax havens. Poilievre, known for his populist approach, has been criticized for his past support of the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests and alleged foreign interference in his 2022 leadership campaign. These controversies add complexity to an election already influenced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies and annexation threats.”

    Liberal Mark Carney (Photo: Liberal International)
    Liberal Mark Carney (Photo: Liberal International)

    The war of attrition for political supremacy is getting murkier with allegations and counter-allegations flying high with each of the main political players trying to woo voters with promises of cutting down the cost of living and making life more affordable.

    Led by rookie Mark Carney, the ruling Liberals face an uphill task in countering the well-orchestrated campaign of the main Opposition party, the Conservatives.

    After two terms of running minority governments, the Liberals are fighting with their backs to the wall. The change of leadership weeks before the electoral battle may have augured well for Marc Carney and his party. But that alone may not be enough to prevent the Conservatives from achieving their single-point agenda of wresting back the power they lost to Justin Trudeau and his Liberals in 2019.

    Though Liberals have been rallying behind Marc Carney,  he continues to be the target of all Opposition criticism and attacks. He has been accused of plagiarism in his Ph.D. thesis. A  national daily came out with a startling revelation in this regard.

    A report in the National Post has accused him of taking other people’s ideas as his own in the federal election campaign.

    “It isn’t new,” the report said.

    The newspaper obtained a copy of Carney’s 1995 thesis for his doctorate in economics from Oxford University titled “The Dynamic Advantage of Competition.” It showed 10 instances of apparent plagiarism, according to the judgment of three university academics who reviewed the material.

    The newspaper report further says that in several sections of his thesis, Carney used full quotes, paraphrases, or slightly modified quotes from four previous works without proper acknowledgement or attribution.

    “He’s just directly repeating without quotations. That’s what we call plagiarism,” said Geoffrey Sigalet, an assistant professor and member of UBC Okanagan president’s advisory committee on student discipline, which handles plagiarism cases for the university.

    The National Post provided the 10 examples to Carney’s campaign team. He was sworn in as prime minister on March 14, and is currently running in an election that will be held on April 28.

    Marc Carney heaved a sigh of relief as some academicians came to his rescue. “I believe you are mischaracterizing this work. As an academic of nearly 40 years, I see no evidence of plagiarism in the thesis you cited nor any unusual academic practices,” said American economist Margaret Meyer, Official Fellow of Economics at Nuffield College, in the provided statement.

    “Mark’s thesis was evaluated and approved by a faculty committee that saw his work for what it is: an impressive and thoroughly researched analysis that set him apart from his peers,” added Meyer.

    Besides the plagiarism controversy, power seekers – Liberals and Conservatives – are sparing no opportunity to convince an average Canadian of their policies and programs through which they promise to make life affordable by cutting down costs of groceries, house rent and taxes.

    Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre gestures after speaking at a campaign event in Toronto on April 2, 2025 (Photo: Cole Burston / The Canadian Press)

    Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois have been accusing  Pierre Poilievre of benefiting from “external” support in his leadership run a couple of years ago. The accusing fingers point towards India. They have been mounting an attack on the Conservative Leader and Prime Ministerial candidate for refusing to go for security checks that enable the national leaders to get confidential security briefings.

    One of the major issues facing Canada is its future relationship with its big brother, neighbor and biggest trade partner, the US, besides trying to rein in immigration and making housing affordable.

    Excitement of the immigrant communities in general and the Indo-Canadians can be judged from the number of candidates they are putting up for the April 28 polls.

    The response of the Indo-Canadian community is massive. Going by the lists of the contestants makes interesting revelations. Of all political parties, the largest number of candidates of Indian origin are being fielded by the Conservatives. It reveals a visible and significant shift from the Liberals to the Conservatives.

    Three of the long-standing members of Indian descent who will be missing from the next house are Harjit Singh Sajjan, Arif Virani (both were Cabinet Ministers in Justin Trudeau’s government) and Chandra Arya, an ardent supporter of India.

    While Harjit Singh Sajjan and Arif Virani decided to give a miss to the next election, the candidacy of Chandra Arya was revoked by the Liberal Party. Earlier, his candidature for the leadership race, too, was rejected.

    (Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with five decades of experience covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered  Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than four decades, besides covering 10 Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows. For more in-depth analysis, please visit probingeye.com  or follow him on Twitter.com/probingeye)