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List of perennial candidates in Canada

List of perennial candidates in Canada

List of political candidates who frequently run for office unsuccessfully

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for public office without a reasonable chance of winning. While there is no generally accepted "number" of times a candidate must run before being considered "perennial", contemporary sources note that two or three failed candidacies, followed by another attempt, qualifies a candidate as perennial.[1][2][3]

In Canada, perennial candidates may run with the support of small or fringe political parties, may attempt to become involved with mainstream parties without the backing of that party's membership and/or leadership executive, or may run municipally, where the influence of political parties is diminished.[4]

There are few residency requirements for elected office in Canada. Candidates may run federally in any electoral district as long as they are a Canadian citizen over the age of 18 who is not disqualified based on profession (federal judges, provincial and territorial elected representatives, the Chief Electoral Officer, or Governor General), status as an incarcerated person, or after failing to submit a campaign financial return after a previous campaign.[5] There is no requirement for a candidate to reside in the electoral district where they seek election.[6] Provincial and municipal elections rules generally require a candidate reside within the jurisdiction broadly, but do not require a candidate to reside in the direct electoral district in which they seek elected office.

These lax rules allow perennial candidates to seek elected office across Canada. John Turmel, the Canadian perennial candidate who, according to Guinness World Records holds the records for the most elections contested and for the most elections lost, has sought the offices of Mayor, Member of Provincial Parliament, and Member of Parliament in 71 different jurisdictions across Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, since 1979.[7]

List of Perennial Candidates in Canada

More information Candidate, Primary place of residence ...

Perennial Candidates by region

Atlantic Canada

Quebec

Alex Tyrrell

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Ontario

Enza "Supermodel" Anderson

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Don Andrews

Donald Clarke Andrews (born Vilim Zlomislić) was the leader of the Nationalist Party of Canada, a white-supremacist unregistered political party active from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Andrews best result came in 1976, when he earned 5.3% of the vote for mayor of Toronto in a race against popular incumbent David Crombie. Andrews would often only contest those elections where he would be placed at the top of the ballot by virtue of his last name's alphabetical importance.

More information Level, Election ...

Michael Baldasaro

More information Level, Election ...

Douglas Campbell

Douglas Campbell was a teacher and writer from Toronto, Ontario. In 1962, Campbell ran an independent campaign for Parliament in the electoral district of St Paul's, running against future Governor General Roland Michener. Campbell launched three NDP leadership campaigns in the 1970s; he twice sought the position of Ontario NDP leader in the 1970 leadership election and also 1972 when he challenged incumbent Stephen Lewis. He also challenged David Lewis for the federal NDP leadership in 1973 and ran to replace Lewis in the 1975 New Democratic Party leadership election.

In 1988, Campbell ran against North York's incumbent mayor, Mel Lastman. A profile in the Toronto Star listed Campbell's age as 59 and residence as Gulliver Road in Toronto, as well as referencing a past campaign for the office of Mayor of Mississauga. He told the Star his campaign was an attempt to find a larger platform so he could campaign on issues such as "sanctions against South Africa, free trade and the Meech Lake Accord."[8]

During Campbell's campaign for mayor of Toronto in 2003, he generated media attention when he invited the audience at an all-candidates meeting to his wife's memorial service.[9] Campbell, whose age was listed as 72 during the Toronto mayoral campaign in 2006, was attacked in a National Post editorial for a statement all-candidates meeting where the candidate said voting for a capitalist mayor was like "voting to kill your fellow workers," and comparing Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt to Adolf Hitler.[10] He was quoted in Now Magazine as also saying "If you vote for a capitalist candidate, you're voting to kill children."[11]

More information Level, Election ...


Bob Smith

Bob Smith (born Robert Wayne Smith) ran for federal, provincial, and municipal office 10 times from 1972 to 2006. His best result came in 1980 when he earned 1,319 votes in a race for school trustee in Toronto's Ward 8.

More information Level, Election ...

Manitoba

Saskatchewan

Alberta

British Columbia

Notes

    1. [N 1]
      Incomplete campaigns include those campaigns where a candidate declares their intent, attempts to file, and/or begins a campaign, but is unable to continue in the campaign, does not appear on the final ballot, or the election is voided for any reason.
    2. [N 2]
      While Smith had the backing of the Nationalist Party, he was listed as "Independent" on the ballot, as the party did not have official status.

    References

    1. [1]
      Weeks, Linton (September 23, 2011). "Also-Rans: What Drives The Perennial Candidates?". NPR. Retrieved August 28, 2021. For the purposes of this story, we are defining the perennial presidential candidate as someone who runs for — and loses — the race to the White House at least twice. And then runs again.
    2. [2]
      "Iran's presidential election: Who the candidates are". BBC News. May 28, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2021. [Mohsen Rezai] has stood three times as president, and never held public office, having also failed in a bid to be elected to parliament in 2000. He is commonly referred to as a "perennial candidate".
    3. [3]
      Samuels, Alex; Radcliffe, Mary (June 9, 2021). "Most Candidates Take The Hint After Two Losses. Why Won't Beto O'Rourke and Charlie Crist?". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved August 28, 2021. ...both O'Rourke and Crist are risking their political credibility if they run again and lose, as they've already failed to win two consecutive runs for office. Even worse, they could be marked as perennial candidates.
    4. [4]
      Brown, Chris (29 September 2015). "Canada election 2015: Perennial candidates make running and losing a full-time job". CBC British Columbia. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019.
    5. [5]
      Parliament of Canada (June 22, 2023). Canada Elections Act (S.C. 2000, c. 9) (Report). Justice Laws Website. Retrieved 10 March 2024. 65 The following persons are not eligible to be a candidate:
    6. [6]
      "How to Become a Candidate". elections.ca. Elections Canada. 31 October 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2024. Note: You may only seek election in a single electoral district at a time, but you do not need to reside in that district.
    7. [7]
      Kassam, Ashifa (23 September 2018). "'No regrets': world's biggest election loser runs for 96th time in Canada". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 September 2018.
    8. [8]
      James, Royson (25 October 1988). "Housing high priority for mayoral candidates". Toronto Star.
    9. [9]
      Porter, Catherine (23 October 2003). "It's more fun on the fringe, candidates prove". Toronto Star.
    10. [10]
      "Toronto voters deserve better". National Post. 6 October 2006.
    11. [11]
      "NOW Magazine - Newsfront in Toronto, OCTOBER 12 - 18, 2006". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved April 16, 2010.
    12. [12]
      Stewart, John (2 March 2024). "Half a century later, 1973 election upset still astounds". Mississauga News. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024.
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