A Losing Game follows three people who ran for office in the 2022 Quebec provincial election, casting a critical eye on our electoral system—and the many ways in which it is dysfunctional.
A Losing Game follows three people who ran for office in Quebec’s October 2022 provincial election.
The one thing they had in common? They were all sure to lose.
Through their individual campaigns, the film peels back the curtain on our electoral system and the many ways in which it is dysfunctional: the additional barriers faced by women and racialized people, deficiencies in the voting process, unfair campaign financing rules and the undue weight given to media and polls.
In this documentary, Jenny Cartwright casts a critical eye on a political system that doesn’t offer everyone the same opportunities. For most, the race is over before it even begins. But, thanks to the way the electoral system is set up, the big losers are the rest of us.
Project origins
My life partner decided to run in the 2012 provincial election as an independent liberal candidate—deliberately choosing a designation that doesn’t exist. I agreed to become the official agent for his campaign, whose goal was to explore the inner workings of the electoral system and the power of image in this unequal arms race by imitating the tropes used by the major parties.
With no platform, without campaigning and with no tools other than a haircut, fake glasses, a borrowed tie and a meagre budget—enough to cobble together 300 signs—we got 119 votes. One vote for every 2.5 signs.
In 2014, we decided to repeat the experience and at the same time started considering making a film about it. This time, we were not able to gather the 100 signatures needed to get on the ballot—an exercise that is more time-consuming than you might think. But just because you’re not on the ballot doesn’t mean you can’t use a little humour to reflect on the political system. We took to Facebook, launching a satirical campaign inspired by the tone of the film Yes Sir! Madame.., imitating the way politicians express themselves.
Struck by the ponderousness and opacity of the electoral process, I wrote a first version of A Losing Game back in 2018. That same year, I ran in the Gouin riding for the Null Party—an experience I repeated in 2022, between two film shoots.
People often talk to me about my having run for office. It seems to be an experience that captures their imaginations, as though it’s something that isn’t accessible to all.
In 2024, nearly half of the world’s population was called to the polls. These elections took place during a critical moment in the history of humanity, in the early days of the sixth mass extinction. In election after election, the political class repeated its promises to protect the environment. Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb, year after year. So, I believe it is important that we think about the limits of electoral democracy with respect to the issues we face. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, one thing remains true: there is a profound political dispossession taking place, to the benefit of multinational companies and the ultra-rich.
Will exercising democracy ultimately mean acting outside the bounds of the electoral process?
With
Renaud Blais – 213 votes (0.49% of votes)
Elza Kephart – 0 votes
Jean-Louis Thémis – 199 votes (0.68% of votes)
Hugo Bonin
Catherine Dorion
Francis Dupuis-Déri
Idil Issa
Researched, Written and Directed by
Jenny Cartwright – 102 votes (0.37%)
Cinematography
David Cherniak – 87 votes (0.29%)
Danae Elon
Camera
Josué Bertolino
Location Sound
Claude Périard
Sound Design
Thierry Gauthier
Produced by
Pierre-Mathieu Fortin
Editing
Anne Gabrielle Lebrun Harpin
Art Direction – Animation
Elizabeth Laferrière
Participants
Ministry of the New Normal
Kelly McKinney
Marguerite Kephart
Anne-Marie de la Sablonnière
Paola Chapdelaine
Mathilde Forest
Monika Napier
Mathieu Gagnon
Mireille Krause
Parti Culinaire
Christophe Dubois
Martin Mireault
Louis-Philippe Potvin
Monique Vadnais
Amélie Villeneuve
Lucie Villeneuve
Frédéric St-Laurent
Parti Nul
Myriam Fleury-Bérubé
Gouin Electoral Officers
Gaston Ducas
Marie Vallée
Green Party
Alex Tyrrell
Additional Camera
Vanessa Abadhir
Émile Bureau
Benoit Ouellet
Additional Sound Recording
Arnaud Beaudoux
Jean-François Caissy
David Cherniak
Marie-Andrée Cormier
Dimitri Médard
François Pinet-Forcier
Simon Plouffe
Production Manager
Nadia Koromyslova
Production Assistants
Chloé Gayraud
David Sanchez
Grip – Studio
Ian Zentner
Animation
Rémi Vincent
Sindre Ulvik Péladeau
Additional Research – Animation
Vincent J. Carbonneau
Mercédez Roberge
Technical Support – Editing
Pierre Dupont
Marie-Josée Gourde
Albert Kurian
Patrick Trahan
Computer Graphics
Cynthia Ouellet
Translation and Subtitling
Trans & Sub Coop
Online Editor and Colourist
Yannick Carrier
Narration Written by
Jenny Cartwright
Manal Drissi
Narrator
Rosemarie Sabor
Voice Direction
Alex Ivanovici
Foley
Lise Wedlock
Foley Assistant
Carmelita Glowacki
Foley and Narration Recording
Geoffrey Mitchell
Luc Léger
Music
Quelques mots sur le cirque électoral
Composed by René Binamé
Performed by Claude L’Anthrope
Re-recording Mixer
Isabelle Lussier
Visual Archives
Alamy
Archives de la Ville de Montréal
Radio-Canada Archives
Library and Archives Canada
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Chef Thémis – D’Antananarivo à Montréal
Collection de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec
Elza Kephart
Groupe TVA inc.
Illustration – Bernard Duchesne
iStockphoto
La Clique du Plateau inc. / Radio-Canada / Ardisson et Lumières France
La coop WEBTV
La Presse
The Canadian Press
Le Devoir
Le Nouvelliste
Le Soleil
Library of Congress
McCord Stewart Museum
NASA
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
National Film Board of Canada
Photography by Antoine Desilets
Pond5
Productions J
Sanctuary at SHO
Screenocean / Reuters
Steve Patry
Sylvain L’Espérance
Archival Research
Jenny Cartwright
Madame Karine
Rights Clearances
Madame Karine
The director would like to thank
David Cherniak, without whom this film would not have been possible
The Québec Solidaire team in Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata (which also includes Les Basques):
Myriam Lapointe-Gagnon
Marie-Hélène Harvey
Jérémie Frégeau
Émilie Lacroix
Benoit Ouellet
Stéphanie Robert
Hélia Tremblay-de-Mestral
as well as
The staff of the Directeur général des élections du Québec, who provided invaluable assistance
Thanks also to
Dominique Anglade and her team
Daphnée Azoulay
Halimatou Bah
Matthieu Bardin
Mona Belleau
Christian Blais
Andréanne Bouchard
Antony Boudreau Savoie
Luc Bourdon
Noémi Bureau-Civil
Maude Bussière
Christine Dandenault
Norman Dansereau
Salah Djerri
Éric Émond
Amar Fall
Raphaël Fortin
Kayla Fragman
Frédérique Gagné-Thibault
Véronique Gagnon
Olivier Gélinas Richard
Jeremy Ghio
Élisabeth Grégoire
Andrea Henriquez
Patricio Henriquez
Bernard Larin
Hugo Latulippe
Julien Leclerc
Philippe Lefebvre
Charlotte Lehoux
Katy LeRougetel
Sylvain L’Espérance
Mona Louis-Jean
Frank Malenfant
Joëlle Michaud
Pierre Morissette
Fleur Neesham
Laurie Perron and Alexandra Turgeon (toutEs ou pantoute)
Marc-André Pilon
Maryse Rancourt
Raphaël Rebelo
François-Xavier Richard-Choquette
Cindy Rousseau
Tami Sharp and Jason Hawley
France Séguin
Adis Simidzija
Julie St-Arnaud Drolet
Hugo St-Onge
Jean Tiphane
Kim Waldron
and also to the Direction du scrutin teams in Chauveau, Gouin, Mont-Royal-Outremont and Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata
The producer would like to thank
Thierry Giasson and Eric Montigny, professors in the Department of Political Science at Université Laval, and Maxime Coulombe, doctoral student in political science at Université de Montréal, in addition to Cindy Moreau, Maxime Doyon-Laliberté, Maxime Roy, Gabrielle Brais-Harvey, Stéphanie Guévremont, François Leroux, Cédric Lapointe, Alexandra Bélisle, Eloïse Cassista
This project was supported by FCTMN’s mentoring program in development, with the help of Carmen Garcia
First Phase of Development
Picbois Productions – Karine Dubois
Legal Counsel
Peter Kallianiotis
Press Relations
Nadine Viau
Marketing Manager
Laurianne Désormiers
Marketing Coordinator
Jolène Lessard
Administrator
Sia Koukoulas
Senior Coordinator – Administration
Brenda Nixon
Studio Coordinator
Stéphanie Lazure
Senior Production Coordinators
Joëlle Lapointe
Chinda Phommarinh
Production Coordinators
Lucia Corak
Alexandra Levert
Technical Coordinators
Julien Archambault
Jean-François Laprise
Line Producer
Mélanie Lasnier
Executive Producer
Nathalie Cloutier
A National Film Board of Canada production
© 2025 National Film Board of Canada