Wishing you could mark your ballot for 'None of the Above' in Sault Ste. Marie's provincial byelection race?
Here's your chance. There's a new name on the official list of candidates released Thursday. It's Above Znoneofthe.
Detail of Above Znoneofthe's driver's license. Znoneofthe is a candidate in the upcoming Sault Ste. Marie byelection. Kenneth Armstrong/SooTodaySeriously. First name: Above. Last name: Znoneofthe.
He's representing Ontario's None of the Above Party.
Znoneofthe used to be Sheldon Bergson of Thornhill, Ontario.
That was before he spent $137 in 2015 to legally change his name.
Znone (the z is silent) says he did it because he didn't much like then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"Harper had upset me. Skipping debates, refusing questions. That was the last straw."
Bergson decided to run in the 2015 federal general election. But he didn't have much use for the mainstream political parties. It's hard to be heard in an election when you're not affiliated with one of the big parties.
Bergson reckoned if he changed his name to Above Znoneofthe, he'd be at the bottom of the ballot.
None of the Above. Get it?
"I'd thought about it for years and I said: 'You know what? I'm going to send it in and see if it'll sneak past.' And it did."
It didn't happen fast enough for him to run in 2015.
But in the past two years, Znone has run in a handful of provincial and federal byelections.
"The problem that I have with all of the big parties is that they do what's best for their party first and what's best for the people second."
If the mainstream parties put people first, Znone says, "they wouldn't have sold off a chunk of Hydro. We were getting a billion dollars a year off of that. It was a good investment, making some good money off it."
Ultimately, he wants to see None of the Above as a ballot option for voters.
"My main goal is to see None of the Above there and I will change my name back. I'll go back to Sheldon," he says.
Znone gets upset when he hears people say all the candidates and parties are the same, so why should they vote?
"Veterans fought and died for it. People are fighting and dying all over the world to be able to vote. You're like: 'I've got something better on the tv.' Not gonna go and line up for the vote? It's a duty. You have the right not to. Which I don't think you should. We should make it mandatory. It's disrespectful not to bother to vote every time you have the chance."
"If you really don't like the other options, go run yourself. But don't complain if you didn't even go and vote."
Does Znone really think he can accomplish anything for the voters of Sault Ste. Marie?
"Yes, I do," he says. "If I come up with a good idea and it's so good and everybody's staring at it and they go like: 'yeah, yeah,' steal it, fine. If whatever I come up with starts getting numbers in the polls, that's all that matters to the other parties. Hey, the polls say it's good, let's take it and do it. So all I have to do is get some good ideas out there."
If he's a serious candidate. how much time is the father of two prepared to spend in the Sault?
"I'm up here," he says. "Except for this weekend, I'm going back to see my kids."
"I'll be back up on Monday, right through to the election. I'm planning on being up here pretty much to the end."
In an unscientific SooToday online poll 1,009 respondents conducted Thursday, Znone was running fourth among seven candidates, preferred by 47 voters (4.66 per cent), compared to 30 votes (2.97 per cent) for the Green Party's Kara Flannigan.
The byelection takes place Thursday, June 1.
Here's the official list of the seven official candidates:
- Amaroso, Debbie - Ontario Liberal Party
- Balfour, Gene - Ontario Libertarian Party
- Flannigan, Kara - Green Party of Ontario
- Krmpotich, Joe - New Democratic Party of Ontario
- Romano, Ross - Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
- Turmel, John, Pauper Party of Ontario
- Znoneofthe, Above - None of the Above Party
