Above Znoneofthe

Above Znoneofthe (born Sheldon Bergson on 28 June 1969) is a Canadian politician and perennial candidate. He changed his name to "Above Znoneofthe" with a silent "Z" so that his name would be placed last on alphabetical ballots.

Biography

While a university student, Znoneofthe ran in the 1993 Canadian federal election as a candidate for the short-lived National Party of Canada in the Ontario riding of Markham—Whitchurch-Stouffville, earning about 1% of the vote.

Znoneofthe decided to re-enter politics in 2015, and legally changed his name so that it would appear on electoral ballots as "Znoneofthe, Above", adding a silent Z so that his name would appear at the bottom of alphabetical-order ballots. Znoneofthe explained that his name was chosen for those who do not usually vote, telling CBC News that he thought, "one of these days we should get ‘none of the above’ on a ballot."

He first ran under his changed name in a provincial by-election in Whitby—Oshawa on 11 February 2016; however, since Ontario electoral ballots list candidates' names with their given names first, he appeared as "Above Znoneofthe".

During a by-election in Ottawa—Vanier, Znoneofthe attempted to participate in a debate that he was not invited to, as a candidate under the None of the Above party. Audience members shouted for Znoneofthe and another candidate who was not invited to leave, but neither left until escorted off of the stage by police. Znoneofthe did appear last on the alphabetical order list of candidates in the CBC News article detailing the incident.

He has since run in several by-elections as an independent and as a member of the None of the Above Party, and most recently contested Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's riding of Papineau in the 2021 Canadian federal election as a member of the Rhinoceros Party.

Electoral record

Federal

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
	Liberal hold		Swing		–2.15
Source: Elections Canada

Ontario

Ontario provincial by-election, 27 February 2020: Ottawa—Vanier Resignation of Nathalie 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
	Liberal hold		Swing		+6.89

As Sheldon Bergson

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
	Liberal gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		+21.14
Sources: Canadian Elections Database, Library of Parliament