2026 Ontario municipal elections
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The 2026 municipal elections in Ontario will be held on October 26, 2026.[1]
Voters in the province of Ontario elected mayors, councillors, school board trustees and all other elected officials in all of the province's municipalities. This will be the first set of municipal elections to not overlap with a provincial election in the same year since 2010.[2]
Electoral system
In 2016, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed Bill 181, the Municipal Elections Modernization Act,[3] which permitted municipalities to adopt ranked ballots for municipal elections.[4]
London was the only municipality to use ranked ballots in the 2018 election itself, with the decision in that city being made by London City Council in 2017,[5] while Cambridge and Kingston held referendums concurrently with their 2018 elections on whether to adopt ranked ballots for the next municipal elections in 2022, with both referendums passing.[6][7][8]
However, in 2020 the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed the Supporting Ontario's Recovery and Municipal Elections Act, 2020,[9] which removed the option for ranked choice voting in municipal elections. Therefore, London will switch back to First-past-the-post voting for the 2022 election, the cities of Cambridge and Kingston will not be able to switch to ranked ballots.[10]
By municipality
Counties
- 2026 Bruce County municipal elections
- 2026 Dufferin County municipal elections
- 2026 Elgin County municipal elections
- 2026 Essex County municipal elections
- 2026 Frontenac County municipal elections
- 2026 Grey County municipal elections
- 2026 Haliburton County municipal elections
- 2026 Hastings County municipal elections
- 2026 Huron County municipal elections
- 2026 Lambton County municipal elections
- 2026 Lanark County municipal elections
- 2026 Leeds and Grenville United Counties municipal elections
- 2026 Lennox and Addington County municipal elections
- 2026 Middlesex County municipal elections
- 2026 Northumberland County municipal elections
- 2026 Perth County municipal elections
- 2026 Peterborough County municipal elections
- 2026 Prescott and Russell United Counties municipal elections
- 2026 Renfrew County municipal elections
- 2026 Simcoe County municipal elections
- 2026 Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties municipal elections
- 2026 Wellington County municipal elections
Districts
- 2026 Algoma District municipal elections
- 2026 Cochrane District municipal elections
- 2026 Kenora District municipal elections
- 2026 Manitoulin District municipal elections
- 2026 Nipissing District municipal elections
- 2026 Parry Sound District municipal elections
- 2026 Rainy River District municipal elections
- 2026 Sudbury District municipal elections
- 2026 Thunder Bay District municipal elections
- 2026 Timiskaming District municipal elections
Regional municipalities
- 2026 Durham Region municipal elections
- 2026 Halton Region municipal elections
- 2026 Muskoka District municipal elections
- 2026 Niagara Region municipal elections
- 2026 Oxford County municipal elections
- 2026 Peel Region municipal elections
- 2026 Waterloo Region municipal elections
- 2026 York Region municipal elections
Single-tier municipalities
Municipalities with more than 125,000 people:
- 2026 Barrie municipal election
- 2026 Greater Sudbury municipal election
- 2026 Guelph municipal election
- 2026 Hamilton, Ontario municipal election
- 2026 Kingston, Ontario municipal election
- 2026 London, Ontario municipal election
- 2026 Ottawa municipal election
- 2026 Toronto municipal election
- 2026 Windsor municipal election
Ottawa
Incumbent mayor Mark Sutcliffe, elected in 2022, has not stated if he plans on seeking a second term.
Potential candidates
- Jeff Leiper, councillor[11]
- Mark Sutcliffe, incumbent mayor since 2022
Toronto
Incumbent mayor Olivia Chow, elected in 2023, has not stated if she plans on seeking her first full-term.
Expressed interest
- Brad Bradford, 2023 mayoral candidate and councillor[12][13]
Potential candidates
- Ana Bailão, 2023 mayoral candidate and former councillor
- Chloe Brown, 2022 and 2023 mayoral candidate
- Olivia Chow, incumbent mayor since 2023[14]
- Marco Mendicino, former federal Liberal MP and Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Mark Carney[15]
- John Tory, former mayor
- Anthony Furey, 2023 mayoral candidate
Declined to run
- Josh Matlow, 2023 mayoral candidate and councillor
Opinion polling
| Polling firm | Source | Date of poll | Sample size | MOE | Brad Bradford | Olivia Chow | Marco Mendicino | John Tory | Other[a] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pallas Data[16] | IVR | June 7, 2025 | 611 | ± 4% | 14% | 37% | 11% | 24% | 15% |
Single-tier municipalities
Municipalities with fewer than 125,000 people:
Belleville
County of Brant
Brantford
Brockville
Chatham-Kent
Cornwall
Gananoque
Haldimand County
Kawartha Lakes
Norfolk County
Orillia
Pelee
Pembroke
Peterborough
Prescott
Prince Edward County
Quinte West
Smiths Falls
St. Marys
Stratford
St. Thomas
References
- ^ "Ontario Municipal Elections".
- ^ "No ballot required". Retrieved September 26, 2022.
- ^ "Bill 181, Municipal Elections Modernization Act, 2016". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
- ^ "Legislation passes allowing Ontario municipalities to use ranked ballots". The Globe and Mail, June 7, 2016.
- ^ "London, Ont., votes to become 1st Canadian city to use ranked ballots". CBC News Windsor, May 2, 2017.
- ^ Andrew Coyne, "Election reform is coming to Canada — somewhere, somehow, and soon". National Post, October 6, 2017.
- ^ "Cambridge voters approve ranked balloting measure but low turnout could spike it". Global News, October 23, 2018.
- ^ "Kingston says "Yes" to electoral reform". Kingstonist, October 23, 2018.
- ^ "Bill 218, Supporting Ontario's Recovery and Municipal Elections Act, 2020". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
- ^ "Method of voting | City of London". london.ca. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-leiper-mayoral-run-1.7569914
- ^ Bradford, Brad (June 15, 2024). "Brad Bradford: One year ago I ran to be Toronto's mayor. The city is truly 'paying' for the leader it chose". The Hub. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
- ^ https://www.ipolitics.ca/2025/05/30/brad-bradford-to-run-for-mayor-of-toronto-again/
- ^ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7066967
- ^ "Mark Carney's chief of staff considering running to be Toronto's mayor, insiders say". Toronto Star.
- ^ https://x.com/CanadianPolling/status/1932902810699416026
Notes
- ^ Including undeclared candidates and "undecided"