Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press Supporters from various parties hold up campaign signs outside the studio of the first election debate in Toronto, on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019.

It’s a lot to keep track of. Take my own riding of Vancouver East for example, we have nine candidates in total running for that sweet, sweet MP seat, where the NDP candidate Jenny Kwan took in 2015 with around 50 per cent of the vote. There are your usual suspects from the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Greens. And there’s a candidate for the newly formed Peoples’ Party of Canada. But there are also candidates for the Libertarian Party, Communist Party and Marxist-Leninist Party — and the fact that there are both of those is peak East Vancouver. We like options here. In the past few elections, my riding has had candidates from the Pirate Party, the Work Less Party, the Marijuana Party and the Christian Heritage Party. And that’s just one riding! Why all the parties? The Liberal Party of Canada and some form of the Conservative Party (it was known as the Progressive Conservative Party from 1942 to 2003) have existed since Canada’s founding in 1867.