Canada election 2015: Perennial candidates make running and losing a full-time job

Joe Clark was Canada's prime minister and mortgage rates were above 15 per cent when Kimball Cariou made his first run at Parliament.

Thirty six years later, he's still trying to get elected.

"I've been in every federal election since 1979," said Cariou as he handed out campaign fliers near Vancouver's busy Joyce SkyTrain station.

For anyone counting, that would make him 0 for 12. Then again, when you're a candidate for Canada's Communist Party, you learn to keep your expectations for success in check.

"I'm not the sort of person who is going to throw his beliefs in the gutter and run for another party where I might have a betterchance," Cariou told CBC News.

"I found my political home and I've never lost that fire for tryingto make this a place where poor people have rights and dignity."

As of Monday, candidates had to have registered for Canada's 42nd generalelection on Oct. 19, and more than 1,700 have put their names forward.

Only 338 will win.

Many like Cariou will try again and again. There's no limit on how many times a candidate can run and no financial penalty, either.

An Elections Canada official told us as long as a candidatedeclares his or herexpenses and completes all the paperwork, the candidatecan getthe$1,000 deposit back after the campaign.

Running to get message out

Ontario's John Turmel claims to be the king of running and losingin Canadian elections.He's done so a remarkable 84 times, federally, provincially andmunicipally.

His most recent defeat was earlier this month in the Ontarioprovincial byelection that saw Conservative Leader Patrick Brownvictorious.

Turmel garnered just 42 votes.

Still, most frequent or fringe candidates aren't out to get in the record books, and most have a serious message they're trying to convey.

"Over time, they can have some political success," saidHamishTelford, a political scientist with the University of the Fraser Valley inAbbotsford, BC.

"There are candidates who run with fringe parties and committed to particular ideas,and they run because they believe passionately inthose ideas and want to get them discussed in the political mainstream."

Take the Marijuana Party, saidTelford.Many of its pro-pot legalization candidates ran over and overagain in both federal and provincial election campaigns.

"It was a very fringe party and never got more than 0.1 per cent ofthe vote and was often the butt of jokes but now all the parties haveto take a position on marijuana.And I think for the Marijuana party itwas mission accomplished."

Near misses

In other cases, it's the what-could-have-been moments, thatkeep candidates coming back.

Manitoba Liberal Terry Duguid is running for the fourth time,after a near miss in the 2004 federal election when Conservative JoySmith bested him by just 178 votes.

"It was a bit of a heart-breaking election, but I picked myself offthe mat and I did run again," Duguid told CBC News at his WinnipegSouth campaign office.

Often the big political parties will discourage candidates frommultiple runs at a nomination if they don't win after the first orsecond try, but Duguid said theLiberals were glad to welcome him back.

"I've lost a few elections but I've also won some. I was a city councillor for two terms. People from my community urged me to run. I was uncontested in the nomination."

From losers to winners

And in those moments of doubt, there are some inspiringexamples of frequent political losers whoseluck turned.

Jack Layton, the NDP's late leader, was a three-time political loser(twice at Parliament in 1993 and 1997 and another at being mayor ofToronto) before he finally won a seat.

And in P.E.I.earlier this year, the Green Party's Peter Bevan-Bakerbroke a long string of nine election shutouts before he finally scoredhis historic win.

This time in the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway, Cariou, the Canadian Communist,will be one of six names on the ballot.

His best-ever showing was in 1993 when he topped out at 343votes.Perhaps he'll beat that this time, but he says he's unconcerned.He says it's really about being on the ballot and speaking at thecandidatesmeetings.

"It helps shift votes away from the right-wing parties, to theleft," he said,"so we have an impact in every election."