During the 2000 Canadian federal election, members of the Edible Ballot Society (EBS) protested what they considered to be the “futility of electoral politics” by eating their ballots. This article argues that these actions, while illegal, were performances of citizenship intended to produce a creative rupture in the given definition of the Canadian state and electoral process. The analysis is informed by critical scholarship on protest and humor, and draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s analysis of carnival and Engin Isin’s framework of “acts of citizenship” to situate the EBS protest as a form of prefigurative politics that is embedded in and yet challenges neoliberal discourse. The EBS action attempted to highlight the Canadian state’s refusal to accept its own emergence as an ongoing political project rather than a static entity, and was pushback against the proscribed voting process designed to open up new spaces for democratic reform.
Matthew Hayes is an independent filmmaker and a PhD candidate in the Canadian Studies program at Trent University. His documentary films explore social justice issues such as poverty, homelessness, and labor. His dissertation research will contribute to the history of Cold War science through an original study of Canada’s UFO investigation. He is also drawn to topics that convey the humor and absurdity of politics and everyday life. E-mail:matthewhayes2@trentu.ca