Pierre Poilievre is facing a crucial by-election test as leader of Canada's Conservative party after losing his constituency in the last general election.
Poilievre is widely expected to win the race for the rural Alberta riding and regain a seat in the House of Commons, despite facing a record 214 candidates, many associated with a protest group seeking electoral reform.
It is the second time the group has targeted Poilievre in a campaign, and voters in the riding will need to fill out a write-in ballot due to the unusually high number of names.
Poilievre, facing a mandatory leadership review in January, will have to show he can win the Conservative stronghold by a significant margin.
The Conservative party leader has been out of the House since April, when his party was defeated by Mark Carney's Liberals and he lost the Ottawa-area riding he had held since 2004 to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy.
