Wednesday was the deadline to be nominated to run in the 2019 Federal Election, and Guelph has nine people people on the ballot. Are you surprised at that number? You might be, because along with the eight known candidates, there’s a ninth independent candidate in the race, and it’s hard to find any information about him.

So here’s the official list of candidates directly from Elections Canada:

BURNETT, Juanita – Communist Party of Canada
DYCK, Steve – Green Party of Canada
JAHANGIR, Aisha – New Democratic Party
KLEVERING, Kornelis – Independent
LONGFIELD, Lloyd – Liberal Party of Canada
PARALOVOS, Mark – People’s Party of Canada
SACHAN, Ashish – Conservative Party of Canada
TRUSCOTT, Gordon – Christian Heritage Party of Canada
WASSILYN, Michael – Independent

The addition of Wassilyn is interesting, and it’s a mystery too. Most candidates have phone or website information included in their listing on the Elections Canada website, but Michael Wassilyn has none.

A quick Google search yields no practical results, and a 411.ca search for Michael Wassilyn in Guelph comes back with no results. Wassilyn has also attended none of the all candidates meetings or debates held so far.

In Wellington-Halton Hills, the list of candidates is much tighter, and restricted to only candidates from the main parties:

BARRON, Lesley – Liberal Party of Canada
BASCOMBE, Andrew – New Democratic Party
CARLE, Syl – People’s Party of Canada
CHONG, Michael – Conservative Party of Canada
MARTIN, Ralph – Green Party of Canada

According to 338Canada.com, Guelph is “Likely” to go Liberal on Election Day with Longfield leading Sachan 39.6 per cent to 26.3 per cent. Dyck is now in third place with 24 per cent, followed by Jahangir with 8.4 per cent.

It’s a similar picture in Wellington-Halton Hills, where the incumbent Chong sits out front by nearly 15 points ahead of his nearest competition; Chong’s support sits at 44.5 per cent as compared to 30.5 per cent for Barron. Martin sits in third place with 14.2 per cent, with Bascombe sitting at 7.5 per cent.

Advanced polls start on October 11 and run through October 14. The times and location for your local advanced poll should be included on your voter information card, and if you haven’t received your voted information card yet, you can find out if you’re on the voter’s list at the Elections Canada website.

Election Day is October 21.