It’s been a busy couple of years. Beginning with the Ontario provincial election in June 2022, followed by the Toronto municipal election in October 2022, and the Toronto mayoral by-election in June 2023, RaBIT’s been working hard to ensure that voters know where candidates’ stand on restoring local choice and ranked ballots whenever they head to the ballot box. Three elections in 13 months might seem like a lot already, but there are actually two more important votes before the end of 2023.

First, members of the Ontario Liberal Party are voting for a new leader on Saturday and Sunday, 25 and 26 November. RaBIT is happy to announce that all four candidates have now committed to restoring local choice and recognizing municipalities’ right to choose how to run their own elections. Thank you to all four candidates and best of luck in the upcoming vote.

Winning this unanimous commitment from all four aspiring leaders is incredibly important and really helps to further build momentum for our cause. We now look forward to seeing the restoration of local choice feature prominently in the Liberal Party’s platform in the next provincial election campaign.

The second important vote remaining this year is the Toronto City Council by-election in Scarborough Southwest, Ward 20. This vote, which is taking place on Thursday, 30 November, will determine who replaces former Councillor Gary Crawford. This by-election is important because it represents an opportunity to “flip a seat” by replacing a councillor who consistently opposed adopting ranked ballots with one who supports doing so.

RaBIT is running a Ranked Ballot Candidate Pledge campaign for this by-election. We have sent messages to all candidates for whom we have been able to find contact information and have started to receive pledges from some candidates. We will start revealing these pledges shortly and will continue to promote the commitments of those candidates who have come out in favour of ranked ballots right up to election day. So, if you live in Scarborough Southwest, please ask any candidates seeking your support to support ranked ballots and to take our candidate pledge.