The result in Terrebonne is illegitimate. Tatiana Auguste must resign.

Elections Canada fucked up their ONLY job.

On the left, Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste. On the right, Bloc candidate and incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné. Elections Canada claims that Auguste won by a single vote…but due to their error, failed to count valid mail-in ballots. | (Left) Copyright © Tatiana Auguste, (Right) Copyright © Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, both licensed under fair dealing.

It takes a lot of work for a single election result in a single Canadian riding to become so notorious that it gains its own Wikipedia page about the legitimacy of the contest. But thanks to the dipshits at Elections Canada failing to do their only job, the good people of Terrebonne in the province of Québec have had their election, in effect, stolen.

Words like “stolen” and “illegitimate” are naturally controversial, because it is an extremely serious accusation to claim that an election was fundamentally unfair. It can become the fuel behind false conspiracies, such as Donald Trump’s Big Lie leading to the January 6^th insurrection.

But in the case of Terrebonne, the facts of the case make it clear to me that the claimed results are illegitimate, and that a by-election must be conducted. Because what has in the past sounded like paranoia, in this instance has actually happened.

On May 1^st, the validated results for Terrebonne declared Bloc Québécois candidate and incumbent MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné as the winner over Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste, by a margin of 44 votes.

But as the margin was so close, an automatic judicial recount occurred on May 10^th, and this declared that Ms. Auguste had actually won instead, by a single vote.

Neither this recount nor the margin are the source of the claims of illegitimacy. This is a normal process for elections with a tight margin, and the judicial recounts are supposed to work like this. The problem, however, came after the judicial recount…when the ballots that weren’t counted became evident.

On May 13^th, it was widely disclosed by a voter in Terrebonne that her mail-in ballot, sent on April 5^th, was returned to her on May 2^nd, unopened. This was because the return envelope provided by Elections Canada themselves had a misprinted address.

As a result, despite using the exact envelope Elections Canada provided her, her vote was sent back uncounted, entirely due to Elections Canada’s error. And to put the icing on the cake? She explicitly says she voted for Ms. Sinclair-Desgagné, the Bloc Candidate…who again, lost by one vote.

Elections Canada declared the result to still be final, despite admitting that five more voters also had ballots affected by the false address on the labels that Elections Canada printed. The labels are printed in sheets of 21, which means that at least 21 mail-in ballots were affected by this issue, and potentially many more.

The problem is that Elections Canada has no ballot cure process granted to them by the law, and no legal standing to contest the judicial recount. They literally do not have the legal power to fix their own mistake, despite the entire country now knowing their mistake changed the result.

And even if they were ordered by a court to do so, they don’t know which mail-in ballots with false addresses were sent before the deadline and which were not, which means a ballot cure is impossible, because we cannot identify which ballots need to be cured.

As a result, the Bloc Québécois is filing a legal challenge, requesting that the result be voided and a by-election be held. Such a thing has never happened before in Canada, but Elections Canada has made an unacceptable error, which has directly violated the most basic right of the Canadian people, to vote and choose our own leaders.

Faith in our democratic system relies upon free and fair elections, and the election in Terrebonne was not fair. Elections Canada made a stupid mistake, failing to proofread the most important mail they will send for the next four years.

And now, an illegitimate MP, falsely elevated by a result which failed to count valid ballots, sits in the House of Commons, and she will provide confidence and vote on legislation. This is a perversion of the democratic order. This seat has been stolen.

Prime Minister Carney claims the issue is out of his hands, saying “not up to me”. And in a fashion, he’s right. It’s actually up to Tatiana Auguste herself, whether she wishes to do the right thing or drag out the battle in the courts.

She must resign at the earliest opportunity legal for an MP to do so, and abstain from any and all votes until that point, even confidence measures. If she has any decency, not that politicians typically do, she will resign so that a by-election can be conducted, which of course she is free to run in, as she did not break any rules herself.

If Ms. Auguste wins that free and fair by-election, good for her. And if Ms. Sinclair-Desgagné wins it instead, good for her as well. This has nothing to do with partisanship, and everything to do with protecting Canadian democracy.

An illegitimate MP must never be allowed to enter the House, and exert false authority that the people did not grant them. And yet, the Liberal minority government is propping up confidence by including exactly such an illegitimate caucus member.

The longer this drags out, the more votes she participates in, the further the damage will be to confidence in our electoral system. People will gain a real reason to challenge the fairness of Canadian elections…if they haven’t gained one already.

If Tatiana Auguste cares about the democracy she claims to serve, then she must resign so that a by-election can be held. Again, she should be free to re-offer in that by-election, since none of this is her fault, but she is the unfair beneficiary here, and that injustice must be resolved.

Whether Ms. Auguste wins or loses that by-election, a new race means that the controversy will be cleared, and that whoever serves as the next MP for Terrebonne serves with legitimacy and pride.

Because as it stands? The people of Terrebonne do not have an MP…merely a pretender.