You don't need all 10 fingers to count the number of people who have run for federal office as an independent candidate in the last six decades and made it to Ottawa.
That's a reality that Sheldon Clare, who chose not to align with a political party in the Cariboo-Prince George race, said he was well aware of when entering the campaign.
"It's very difficult for an independent to be elected - I knew that going into this, but I wanted to be able to make sure that the debate was raised to a higher standard, I wanted to make sure this riding was not ignored and that it wasn't a safe seat," said Clare.
By Clare's measure, he "enjoyed tremendous success," despite coming out of Monday's general election with 657 votes (1.2 per cent of the popular vote).
The finish placed him fifth in the field of seven candidates, earning 330 and 255 more votes than Christian Heritage candidate Adam De Kroon and unaffiliated protest-vote candidate Gordon Campbell, respectively.
"I brought national attention to the race here and the riding. It's certainly obviously not a safe seat now," Clare said.
Despite the national attention - Clare's campaign was covered by outlets such as Maclean's and Vice Canada - the local independent candidate said he knew that reach wouldn't translate into local votes.
"The election here was always going to be one of a main party versus main party and I knew that going into this. But nonetheless I knew the debates were good, I think I raised issues that became important for discussion and all in all I think it was a tremendous success," he said.
The two main parties that ended up duking it out on Oct. 19 were the Conservatives and Liberals, with Tracy Calogheros making MP-elect Todd Doherty sweat late into the night.
How does Clare square that outcome with his claim that his candidacy put pressure on the Conservative stronghold?
"(Calogheros) was very clear with me that she thought that if I hadn't been here, the debates would not have been the same and it may not have had the same outcome," he said. "People were going to be voting out of fear and strategically anyway. The party brand is a difficult thing to overcome and that's how the voting went. Certainly, the debates did get a fair bit of attention. Tracy is a very strong candidate and I mean, no Liberal has ever done as well as she has in this riding, that's very, very clear."
With 16,921 votes, Calogheros earned 31.5 per cent of the riding's support, about six times more than the five per cent backing the Liberal party was able to rack up in the 2011 contest and outshooting the riding's high of almost 26 per cent of the votes in 2008.
For his part, Clare's vote share is on par with previous independent candidates.
In 2004, Mike Orr picked up 1.1 per cent of the Cariboo-Prince George vote, Douglas Gook earned 1.8 per cent in 2008 and Jon Ronan received 0.9 per cent in 2011.
According to preliminary results via Elections Canada, independent candidates received 40,879 votes nationally - 0.2 per cent of the popular vote. None were elected.
Standing for election with the support of a national (and well-recognized) party behind you offers a variety of advantages for candidates, said University of Victoria associate political science professor Jamie Lawson, not the least of which is that party name recognition.
"There's obviously also funding, advice, briefing notes and so on, and a built-in campaign team," Lawson said. "And it's not just branding for the voters, it's branding for the people who support you. So if you don't have a brand from a party, you need a brand from your own name."
That name brand appeared to play a major role in Andr Arthur's 2006 election to the House of Commons. The Quebec radio and TV host mounted an aggressive campaign through his broadcast platforms months before officially joining the election race and became the first non-incumbent Independent to be elected since Tony Roman in 1984. Roman, a one-term Ontario MP, ran as a 'Coalition Independent,' coming directly off of nearly 15 years as mayor of Markham, Ont. Prior to Roman, Leonard Jones served one term as a New Brunswick Independent, starting in 1974.
Five other Independent MPs have been elected in modern federal elections (Quebec's Gilles Bernier, Ontario's John Nunziata and Lucien Lamoureux, B.C.'s Chuck Cadman and Nova Scotia's Bill Casey), with all serving previously as federal representatives aligned with major political parties before leaving (or getting kicked out) for various reasons. The exception was Lamoureux, who ran for re-election as an independent because he was appointed as Speaker of the House.
That's a far cry from the country's earliest days when independents were far more common, explained Lawson.
"John A. MacDonald used to complain about people he called the 'loose fish,'" he said. "It was a weaker party system. There were clear parties, but people would get themselves elected as an Independent Conservative or an Independent Liberal and then wait to be courted by whoever won the election or came out ahead."
Independents today are also fighting the perception of many voters that it matters more which party is in power as opposed to who the local representative is.
"And although that's not quite right in the sense that we're forming a House of Commons first - and everyone's representation counts in that, including the opposition party supporters - that's how many people simplify the decision-making for themselves," Lawson said. "They don't think 'our riding really needs so-and-so or this kind of person to represent our interests here.' A lot of people think 'who would be the best Canadian prime minister?' And that automatically writes out both the minor parties and individual candidates."
Part of that perception comes with the way politics is presented, agrees Quesnel mayor Bob Simpson.
"What gets televised is Question Period, which is the theatre of parliamentary democracies. It's very scripted, it's deliberately partisan, it's deliberately bombastic," said Simpson, who entered municipal politics after an unsuccessful run at retaining his Cariboo North provincial seat as an independent MLA in 2013 following a falling out with the B.C. NDP.
"People don't understand that the real work of a legislature or parliamentarian is the relationships that they build with ministers, with deputy ministers and with senior bureaucrats."
Despite having incumbency (and two years in the Legislature as an independent) on his side, Simpson found he couldn't beat the party system and fell short of winner Liberal Coralee Oakes by about 600 votes.
"I would say the older voting demographic - as much as they don't like what political parties may do to the system and they're not necessarily pleased with the over the top partisanship - they really are party-based, that's what they're comfortable voting along," said Simpson. "I used to joke that there's too many genetic voters: 'I vote Liberal because my family's always been Liberal.' So that's a tough one for independents to overcome."
For Clare, not having a party to point to also raised barriers when it came to raising money.
"That certainly closed some wallets," he said.
But the question had to be asked and Clare said it was an obstacle he ran into as well as volunteers attempting to fundraise for his campaign.
"They would come back and say 'you know what? Independent is a hard sell,'" said Clare. "People want to be electing someone who's going to be driving real change. If you can't get that, then why would they donate to an independent?"
Despite frequently falling short of the ultimate goal of being elected, there are advantages to running outside of the party system, said Simpson. At the top of that list is not having to worry about other party members - especially party leaders - and platform policies dragging you down.
Simpson used the federal NDP's decision to run on a fiscally conservative financial platform as an example.
"If you're an individual NDP candidate who believes in deficit financing in hard times, etc., that's really hard to swallow and defend the policy you don't agree with - particularly when your base voters are not necessarily going to agree with it either," he said.
Clare said he's not ruling out a future run for office, but whether it's as an independent is yet to be determined.
"It's one thing to be making a point and having that point achieved, it's another thing when one makes a realistic assessment of their chances of success," said Clare, adding that running as an independent and expecting success would be long process that he is unsure whether there are adequate resources available to support.
But by virtue of their inclusion in the proceedings, candidates from outside of the major parties add a refreshing and necessary component, said Simpson.
"I think it did change the flavour of the debate and the dialogue at the all candidates' meetings," he said of the non-Liberal, NDP or Conservatives in the Cariboo-Prince George and Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies ridings. "So even in running I think independents and alternate-party candidates improve our democracy even if they don't win."
