Above Znoneofthe (né Sheldon Bergson; born 28 June 1969)[1] is a Canadian politician andperennial candidate. He changed his name to "Above Znoneofthe" with a silent "Z" so that his name would be placed last on alphabetical ballots (hence reflecting the idea of voting forNone of the Above).
While a university student, Znoneofthe ran in the1993 Canadian federal election as a candidate for the short-livedNational Party of Canada in theOntario riding ofMarkham—Whitchurch-Stouffville, earning about 1% of the vote.[2]
Znoneofthe re-entered politics in 2015, andlegally changed his name so that it would appear on electoral ballots as "Znoneofthe, Above", adding asilent Z so that his name would appear at the bottom of alphabetical-order ballots.[1][3] Znoneofthe explained that his name was chosen for those who do not usually vote, tellingCBC News that he thought "one of these days we should get 'none of the above' on a ballot."[1]
He first ran under his changed name in a provincial by-election inWhitby—Oshawa on 11 February 2016; however, since Ontario electoral ballots list candidates' names with their given names first, he appeared as "Above Znoneofthe".[4]
Later in 2016, during a by-election campaign inOttawa—Vanier, Znoneofthe attempted to participate in a debate to which he was not invited, as a candidate under theNone of the Above party. Audience members shouted for Znoneofthe andperennial candidateJohn Turmel, running under thePauper Party, who was also not invited, to leave, but neither left until escorted off of the stage by police. Znoneofthe did appear last on the alphabetized list of candidates in theCBC News article describing the incident.[5]
He has since run in several by-elections as anindependent and as a member of theNone of the Above Party. He contested the2021 Canadian federal election as a member of theRhinoceros Party, running in the riding ofPapineau againstPrime MinisterJustin Trudeau.[6]
| 2021 Canadian federal election:Papineau | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Justin Trudeau | 22,848 | 50.30 | –0.82 | $82,530.41 | |||
| New Democratic | Christine Paré | 10,303 | 22.68 | +3.48 | $8,058.03 | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Nabila Ben Youssef | 6,830 | 15.04 | –0.96 | $3,928.18 | |||
| Conservative | Julio Rivera | 2,198 | 4.84 | +0.6 | $9,640.70 | |||
| Green | Alain Lepine | 1,448 | 3.19 | –4.18 | $4,443.78 | |||
| People's | Christian Boutin | 1,064 | 2.34 | +1.71 | $0.00 | |||
| Rhinoceros | Above Znoneofthe | 418 | 0.92 | +0.21 | $0.00 | |||
| Marxist–Leninist | Garnet Colly | 115 | 0.25 | – | $0.00 | |||
| Independent | Raymond Martin | 102 | 0.22 | – | $0.00 | |||
| Independent | Béatrice Zako | 97 | 0.21 | – | $0.00 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 45,423 | 98.07 | -0.12 | $107,828.60 | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | 894 | 1.93 | +0.12 | |||||
| Turnout | 46,317 | 63.51 | –3.66 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 72,931 | |||||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | –2.15 | ||||||
| Source:Elections Canada[7] | ||||||||
| Canadian federal by-election,October 26, 2020:Toronto Centre Resignation ofBill Morneau | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Marci Ien | 10,581 | 42.0 | -15.4 | $116,839[citation needed] | |||
| Green | Annamie Paul | 8,250 | 32.7 | +25.6 | $100,008[citation needed] | |||
| New Democratic | Brian Chang | 4,280 | 17.0 | -5.3 | $71,222[citation needed] | |||
| Conservative | Benjamin Gauri Sharma | 1,435 | 5.7 | -6.4 | $0[citation needed] | |||
| People's | Baljit Bawa | 269 | 1.1 | – | $22,752[citation needed] | |||
| Libertarian | Keith Komar | 135 | 0.5 | – | ||||
| Independent | Kevin Clarke | 123 | 0.5 | – | ||||
| Free | Dwayne Cappelletti | 76 | 0.3 | – | $1,570[citation needed] | |||
| No affiliation | Above Znoneofthe | 56 | 0.2 | – | $0[citation needed] | |||
| Total valid votes | 25,205 | 100.0 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 118 | 0.5 | -0.2 | |||||
| Turnout | 25,323 | 30.9 | -35.2 | |||||
| Electors on lists | 81,861 | |||||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | -20.5 | ||||||
| Elections Canada[8][9] | ||||||||
| Ontario provincial by-election, February 27, 2020:Ottawa—Vanier Resignation ofNathalie Des Rosiers | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Lucille Collard | 10,404 | 52.22 | +9.36 | ||||
| New Democratic | Myriam Djilane | 5,031 | 25.25 | -4.42 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Patrick Mayangi | 2,329 | 11.69 | -9.69 | ||||
| Green | Benjamin Koczwarski | 1,709 | 8.58 | +4.50 | ||||
| Independent | Julie Fiala | 188 | 0.94 | |||||
| Libertarian | Ken Lewis | 129 | 0.65 | -0.04 | ||||
| None of the Above | Above Znoneofthe | 95 | 0.48 | -0.38 | ||||
| Ontario Alliance | J. Justin O'Donnell | 38 | 0.19 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 19,923 | 99.45% | ||||||
| Total declined, rejected and unmarked ballots | 110 | 0.55% | ||||||
| Turnout | 19.89 | -27.33 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 100,190 | |||||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | +6.89 | ||||||
| Ontario provincial by-election, February 11, 2016:Whitby—Oshawa Resignation ofChristine Elliott | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Lorne Coe | 17,053 | 52.92 | +12.27 | ||||
| Liberal | Elizabeth Roy | 8,865 | 27.51 | −3.99 | ||||
| New Democratic | Niki Lundquist | 5,172 | 16.05 | −6.99 | ||||
| Green | Stacey Leadbetter | 529 | 1.64 | −2.63 | ||||
| None of the Above | Greg Vezina | 261 | 0.81 | – | ||||
| Independent | Above Znoneofthe | 140 | 0.43 | – | ||||
| Libertarian | Adam McEwan | 109 | 0.34 | – | ||||
| People's Political Party | Garry Cuthbert | 52 | 0.16 | – | ||||
| Freedom | Douglas Thom | 34 | 0.11 | −0.44 | ||||
| Pauper | John Turmel | 11 | 0.03 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 32,226 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 61 | 0.19 | ||||||
| Turnout | 32,287 | 28.94 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 111,566 | |||||||
| Progressive Conservativehold | Swing | +8.13 | ||||||
Source(s) Elections Ontario (12 February 2016)."Return from the Records, 2016 By-election Whitby—Oshawa (100)"(PDF). Retrieved18 February 2016. | ||||||||
| 1993 Canadian federal election:Markham—Whitchurch-Stouffville | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Jag Bhaduria | 35,909 | 46.50 | +14.69 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Bill Attewell | 19,695 | 25.51 | -27.59 | ||||
| Reform | Joe Sherren | 17,937 | 23.23 | – | ||||
| New Democratic | Jack Grant | 1,692 | 2.19 | -6.80 | ||||
| National | Sheldon Bergson | 973 | 1.26 | – | ||||
| Natural Law | Stephen Porter | 469 | 0.61 | – | ||||
| Independent | Paul Wang | 458 | 0.59 | – | ||||
| Abolitionist | Dean Papadopoulos | 85 | 0.11 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 77,218 | 99.30 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 545 | 0.70 | ||||||
| Turnout | 77,763 | 70.25 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 110,696 | |||||||
| Liberalgain fromProgressive Conservative | Swing | +21.14 | ||||||
| Sources: Canadian Elections Database,[10] Library of Parliament[2] | ||||||||