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Above Znoneofthe (né Sheldon Bergson; born 28 June 1969)^[1] 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 (hence reflecting the idea of voting for None of the Above).

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.^[2]

Znoneofthe re-entered 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.^[1]^[3] 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."^[1]

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".^[4]

Later in 2016, during a by-election campaign in Ottawa—Vanier, Znoneofthe attempted to participate in a debate to which he was not invited, as a candidate under the None of the Above party. Audience members shouted for Znoneofthe and perennial candidate John Turmel, running under the Pauper Party, who was also not invited, to leave, but neither left until escorted off of the stage by police. Znoneofthe did appear last on the alphabetized list of candidates in the CBC News article describing the incident.^[5]

He has since run in several by-elections as an independent and as a member of the None of the Above Party. He contested the 2021 Canadian federal election as a member of the Rhinoceros Party, running in the riding of Papineau against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.^[6]

Electoral record

Federal

v t e 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^[7]

v t e Canadian federal by-election, October 26, 2020: Toronto Centre Resignation of Bill Morneau
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marci Ien	10,581	42.0	-15.4	$116,839^{[citation needed]}
	Green	Annamie Paul	8,250	32.7	+25.6	$100,008^{[citation needed]}
	New Democratic	Brian Chang	4,280	17.0	-5.3	$71,222^{[citation needed]}
	Conservative	Benjamin Gauri Sharma	1,435	5.7	-6.4	$0^{[citation needed]}
	People's	Baljit Bawa	269	1.1	–	$22,752^{[citation needed]}
	Libertarian	Keith Komar	135	0.5	–
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	123	0.5	–
	Free	Dwayne Cappelletti	76	0.3	–	$1,570^{[citation needed]}
	No affiliation	Above Znoneofthe	56	0.2	–	$0^{[citation needed]}
Total valid votes			25,205	100.0	–
Total rejected ballots			118	0.5	-0.2
Turnout			25,323	30.9	-35.2
Electors on lists			81,861
	Liberal hold		Swing		-20.5
Elections Canada^[8]^[9]

Ontario

Ontario provincial by-election, February 27, 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

v t e Ontario provincial by-election, February 11, 2016: Whitby—Oshawa Resignation of Christine Elliott
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Lorne Coe	17,053	52.92	+12.27
	Liberal	Elizabeth Roy	8,865	27.51	−3.99
	New Democratic	Niki Lundquist	5,172	16.05	−6.99
	Green	Stacey Leadbetter	529	1.64	−2.63
	None of the Above	Greg Vezina	261	0.81	–
	Independent	Above Znoneofthe	140	0.43	–
	Libertarian	Adam McEwan	109	0.34	–
	People's Political Party	Garry Cuthbert	52	0.16	–
	Freedom	Douglas Thom	34	0.11	−0.44
	Pauper	John Turmel	11	0.03	–
Total valid votes			32,226	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			61	0.19
Turnout			32,287	28.94
Eligible voters			111,566
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+8.13
Source(s) Elections Ontario (12 February 2016). "Return from the Records, 2016 By-election Whitby—Oshawa (100)" (PDF). Retrieved 18 February 2016.

As Sheldon Bergson

v t e 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,^[10] Library of Parliament^[2]