Failed candidate makes history in Canada with zero votes in federal election: I am the true unity candidate

A Canadian man made history this week when he became the first candidate to fail to get a single vote in a contested federal election in the country.Félix-Antoine Hamel, 45, received zero votes Monday after putting his name on the ballot in a recent Toronto-St.

Paul’s by-election held in Toronto.“When I saw the result, I was like, ‘Well, I am the true unity candidate.Everyone agrees not to vote for me,'” Hamel told CBC News.He is the first federal candidate to get no votes in a contested race in Canada’s history.While others have received zero votes in the past, they ran uncontested and won.

The Montreal musician decided to run for office — at least on paper — as part of a protest over the first-past-the-post election system in the country, in which the candidate who gets more votes than their opponents, rather than a majority of votes, is elected.Hamel, who worked with the election reform advocacy group Longest Ballot Committee, was one of some 84 people who were listed as candidates on the ballot, according to the outlet.

The committee argues that Canada’s current system awards candidates who the majority of voters didn’t vote for.It secured 77 names on the Toronto ballot — making it the longest paper ballot in Canadian history.

Lesser-known, independent candidates often get at least one of two votes as they are allowed to vote for themselves.But Hamel lives far outside the district he ran in and therefore couldn’t vote in the election.

“I’m one of the last people that would be expected to make Canadian history in any way,” he told CBC.Despite his loss, Hamel was glad the history-making scheme brought attention to the need for voting reforms.“As long as I have the right and the privilege to get zero votes in an election, then we are truly in a democracy,” he said.Prime Minister JustinTrudeau had made a campaign promise to get rid of the oldschool first-past-the-post system after the 2015 federal election but has yet to make...