Media and voters should ask all candidates key questions re: disclosure of donors, fundraisers, campaigners and whether they support key democratic, fair election reforms

Changes needed to effectively require everyone in municipal politics to be honest, ethical, open, representative and waste-preventing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, September 24, 2026

OTTAWA – Today, with Ontario municipal voting day coming up on October 26th, and advance voting starting in a couple of weeks (on different dates depending on the municipality), Democracy Watch called on the media and voters to ask key questions of all candidates across the province, and to demand that candidates disclose key information that voters have a right to know before they vote, and to pledge to resign if they break any of their election promises, and to pledge to push for key changes to make Ontario’s municipal elections actually democratic and fair.

“Municipal elections across Ontario are undemocratic and unfair because candidates are allowed to mislead voters with false election promises and statements, the system favours wealthy candidates who have wealthy supporters as donating huge amounts of money to your own campaign or a third-party interest group advertising blitz is allowed, and voters are denied the right to know, before they vote, who is bankrolling and fundraising and campaigning for candidates,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.  “Voters are also forced to choose only one out of a dizzying number of candidates instead of being allowed to rank them and have the candidate who is supported the most by the most voters win.”

“The media and voters should be asking key questions of all the candidates before advanced voting begins so that voters have key information they need to make an informed vote,” said Conacher.

Ontario’s municipal elections are undemocratic and unfair, and facilitate foreign interference, in the following key ways:

I. Misleading voters is legal

1. Candidates and third parties (interest groups and individuals who are trying to affect the election results) are allowed to lie to voters in their election promises and statements about candidates or anything else;

II. Tilted in favour of wealthy candidates who have wealthy donors

1. A candidate and their spouse are allowed, together, to donate to the candidate’s campaign a total of $7,500 + 20 cents per voter in the municipality (for a mayoral candidate), or $5,000 + 20 cents per voter in the ward (for a council candidate) up to a maximum of $25,000, which is much more than most candidates can afford (Democracy Watch’s research at the federal level and in Ontario shows a large majority of voters donate only $75 on average);
2. Donors are allowed to donate up to $1,200 to a municipal council or local board candidate (and up to $5,000 to the candidates for any one council or local board), and up to $2,500 to a Toronto mayoral candidate, which is much more than an average voter can afford;

III.  Tilted in favour of wealthy “third-party” interest groups who have wealthy donors, and wealthy “third-party” individuals, and the candidates they support

1. Third parties are not even required to register (and be subject to donation limits, spending limits and donor and spending disclosure requirements) if they are only doing ads about issues (only third parties who do ads promoting or opposing candidates are required to register – click here to see section 1 definition of “third party advertisement”);
2. There is no limit to how much an individual and their spouse can donate to their own third-party advertising, and a $1,200 limit on other donations to third parties (to a maximum combined total of $5,000), which is much more than an average voter can afford;
3. The same spending limit applies to an individual who is a third party and a third-party group with thousands of members, which allows a wealthy individual to spend as much as thousands of voters;

IV.  No disclosure of who is fundraising, campaigning or donating

1. Candidates are not required to disclose who is raising money for them, and people raising money are not required to disclose they are doing it nor how much they raised, even if they are lobbyists;
2. Candidates are not required to disclose who is campaigning for them, not even top level people, even if they are lobbyists;
3. Candidates are not required to disclose donations before voters vote (donor disclosure is only required months after voting day);
4. Third parties are not required to disclose how much they spent, nor who funded them, before voters vote (disclosure is only required months after voting day;

V. Voting system allows candidate to win with small % of vote

1. Because of the lack of a ranked ballot or run-off voting system, theoretically one the multiple candidates for many mayoral and municipal council elections (especially the Toronto mayoral election) could win the election with the support of only a small percentage of voters;

“Like federal, provincial and territorial elections, and politics, Ontario’s municipal elections and politics need to be cleaned up in many key ways to make elections democratic and fair, and to ensure everyone is required to be honest, ethical, transparent and waste-preventing, and to make representative decisions,” said Conacher.

Click here to see the top 10 key changes to make Ontario’s municipal governments best-practice democratic governments (similar changes are needed to the key democracy laws that apply to municipalities across Canada), plus the additional change of cancelling Ontario’s strong mayor powers system that the Ford PC Party government enacted because it is fundamentally undemocratic.

A final key question to ask all candidates is: do you support key changes to Ontario‘s laws to require everyone to municipal politics to be honest, ethical, transparent, and to make representative decisions and prevent waste?

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]

Democracy Watch’s Honesty in Politics Campaign, Money in Politics Campaign, Stop Secret, Unethical Lobbying Campaign and Democratic Voting Systems Campaign