Ten candidates vying to represent Battle River-Crowfoot in the House of Commons are to debate tonight in the riding’s largest municipality.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s press secretary Sarah Fischer said he will be attending the event hosted by the Camrose & District Chamber of Commerce ahead of the Aug. 18 byelection.
Poilievre is looking to win in the sprawling eastern Alberta riding after he lost his long-held Ottawa seat of Carleton in the April general election.
The writ was dropped last month after Conservative Damien Kurek, who handily won the seat in the April vote, stepped down so Poilievre could run.
About 210 candidates were registered to run as of Monday on Elections Canada’s website, including Liberal candidate Darcy Spady, the NDP’s Katherine Swampy, Independent Bonnie Critchley and dozens of others sponsored by the Longest Ballot Committee protest group.
Elections Canada says adapted ballots requiring electors to write out the name of their preferred pick will be available at polls given the unusually long list of candidates.
The debate starts at 7 p.m. MT.
With more than 200 names now in the running in Alberta’s Battle River–Crowfoot byelection, voters now won’t actually be scanning a long piece of paper to mark an “x” beside their preferred candidate. They will, however, need to come prepared because they’ll be writing the name of the candidate they’re voting for by hand.
