Canadians' Choice Party


The Canadians′ Choice Party is a minor political party based in Ontario, Canada. The party is led by Bahman Yazdanfar.

History

The Canadians' Choice Party was founded on August 26, 2011 by Bahman Yazdanfar of Toronto. Yazdanfar, who immigrated to Canada from Iran in 1986, ran a small consulting firm for businesses until 2008, when the global economic recession caused him to close. After the failure of his business, Yazdanfar began a talk show on YouTube which interviewed subjects ranging from mainstream local figures to political extremists.
In 2015, in response to public outcry over Your Ward News, a local newspaper delivered to households in The Beaches that was banned by Canada Post for carrying anti-Semitic and racist content, Yazdanfar supported the publication, buying advertising in it and decrying the Ontario government's laying of criminal charges against the publication's publisher and editor for hate speech.
The party failed to win any seats in the 2022 Ontario general election.

Platform

The party bills itself as a "party of independents" and offers very few barriers for entry. To run as a candidate for the party, a candidate has to:
  • Show responsibility first to the riding they represent when they become MPP.
  • Show commitment to stay in the Canadians' Choice Party for the entire mandate once elected.
  • Not cross the floor.
On its website, the party supports four priorities:
It also calls for the ability to recall elected officials and calls for more referendums.

Controversy and associations with Neo-Nazism

The party's position on unfettered free speech has caused controversy in the 2018 provincial election when several of its candidates were found to be associated with the neo-Nazi movement in Canada. James Sears, who ran in the riding of Ottawa Centre, is the editor of the far-right newspaper, Your Ward News, and claims to be an adherent of Nazism.
Among the party's other notable candidates were Paul Fromm, a prominent Canadian white supremacist, who ran in Etobicoke Centre in 2018, and Leslie Bory, a Brantford-based Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist convicted of spreading online hate, who ran in Brantford—Brant in both 2018 and 2022.

Electoral results

Election yearParty LeaderNo. of
overall votes		% of
overall total		No. of
candidates run		No. of
seats won		+/−Government
2011Bahman Yazdanfar156<.01%New Party
2014Bahman Yazdanfar1,2930.03% 0.03%
2018Bahman Yazdanfar1,2390.02% 0.01%
2022Bahman Yazdanfar5680.01% 0.01%
2025Bahman Yazdanfar5820.01%

In the 2011 Ontario general election, the Canadians' Choice Party nominated three candidates for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
RidingCandidate's NameNotesVotes%Rank
Toronto CentreBahman YazdanfarParty Leader190.04%10/10
St. CatharinesJon Radick620.14%7/8
Toronto—DanforthJohn Richardson750.2%9/9

In the 2014 election, Yazdanfar and Richardson ran again, this time joined by Dorian Baxter, perennial candidate for the Progressive Canadian Party.
RidingCandidate's NameNotesVotes%Rank
Toronto CentreBahman YazdanfarParty Leader780.15%11/11
Scarborough—GuildwoodJohn Sawdon1200.34%7/7
Newmarket—AuroraDorian Baxter9221.76%5/7
Toronto—DanforthJohn Richardson1670.4%7/10

In the 2018 election, the party ran five candidates:
RidingCandidate's NameNotesVotes%Rank
Beaches—East YorkBahman YazdanfarParty Leader740.14%9/11
Barrie—InnisfilJake Tucker1840.42%6/8
Brantford—BrantLeslie Bory2530.44%8/9
Etobicoke CentrePaul Fromm6311.10%5/7
Ottawa CentreJames Sears920.14%8/8