What happens when one vote decides an election and that vote never makes it to the ballot box?

Gavin and Stephen dive deep into a razor-thin electoral result in Terrebonne, Quebec, where a federal seat was won by a single vote.

But here's the twist: a mail-in ballot that could have tied the race was rejected due to a postal code error, an error made not by the voter, but by an Elections Canada official.

Drawing on their own high-profile experience in the Opitz v. Wrzesnewskyj Supreme Court case, Gavin and Stephen debate voter disenfranchisement, electoral integrity, and whether democracy should aim for perfection or just “good enough.”

They explore the fragile balance between procedural error and intentional fraud, the role of Canada Post in protecting electoral rights, and whether a single mistake should or should not invalidate an entire election.

Listen For

1:32 What happens when an election is won by just one vote?

6:40 Should a rejected mail-in ballot count if it was the government's error?

10:35 Is the right to vote dependent on voter diligence?

17:00 Can you ever truly “redo” an election?

22:56 Did the Supreme Court's Opitz ruling get misinterpreted in this case?

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Who Really Decides an Election When One Ballot Goes Missing?