Longest Ballot Committee's Response

Tomas Szuchewycz appears before PROC October 7, 2025

The Longest Ballot Committee (LBC) has posted a statement on its Bluesky account (@longestballot.bsky.social) responding to the report and recommendations of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) that calls for amendments to the Canada Elections Act aimed at criminalizing the work of LBC for electoral reform.

The statement says: "PROC report released...and it looks like MPs fell for the conspiracy theories and photo editing skills of Youtuber Ryan Davies of Northern Perspective. For three months the Youtube channel Northern Perspective has been accusing us of collecting nomination signatures without a candidate's name on the form. Their proof... a photo they 'zoomed-in and enhanced.'

"Northern Perspective worked hard to get their accusation known, repeating it many times on their Youtube Channel during the Battle River--Crowfoot by-election. Their edited photo even made it to parliament: To the right is MP Michael Cooper holding up the image they manipulated.

"The good news is we have the original unedited photo! The forms are still blurry, but you can definitely make out where the name is. And...by a stroke of luck we also held on to the original forms featured in the photo (though we won't be sharing those on a bluesky post).

Photos "enhanced" by Northern perspective and original photos 

"This has been a good lesson on the dangers of photoshop, misinformation, and malicious politics.

"What has surprised us most is just how easily a random bozo on Youtube fooled dozens of MPs.

"The LBC will continue to take great pride in our spotless record and strict observance of election law."

In response to questions from CBC about PROC's recommendations, LBC spokesperson Tomas Szuchewycz notes that the 42 Longest Ballot candidates in the Terrebonne by-election each have their own official agent, so the proposal to amend the law requiring unique official agents has already been overcome.

"The only recommended change for us would be a new ban on voters nominating more than one candidate, but we are looking forward to meeting this new challenge."

He added: "We wish MPs would stop wasting their time trying to think up new ways to ban long ballots and instead reflect and recuse themselves from decisions on election law and instead pass responsibility to a permanent, independent, and non-partisan body, such as a citizens' assembly."

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This article was published in

Volume 56 Number 3 - March-April, 2026

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/M56037.HTM

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