While each municipality manages their own elections, they must follow the rules set by the Province of Ontario. In 2020 Ontario law was changed to remove the ability for Ontario cities and towns to use ranked ballots for their elections, so at a very high-level the path to ranked ballots in Toronto requires:
- Ontario law to restore permission for municipalities to hold ranked ballot elections
- The Toronto City Council to decide to hold ranked ballot elections if allowed under Provincial law
- The City of Toronto to setup the necessary systems and processes, including voter education, to enable ranked ballot elections, if directed to do this by Toronto City Council
The path so far
Paths are sometimes winding, and the path so far in Ontario has moved forward and backward over the past decade. Some key events leading to where we are now include:
The path forward
The objective of the 2026 Toronto municipal election taking place with ranked ballot voting requires the following important things:
- The Ontario government must be persuaded to pass legislation to restore the rights of municipalities to choose to use ranked ballot voting
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The City of Toronto must continue preparations for ranked ballot voting:
- by following through on the purchase of voting machines capable of ranked ballot voting;
- and by preparing to carry out the consultation and organisational work to switch to ranked ballot voting once it is again allowed in Ontario law
- Toronto City Council must vote to adopt ranked ballots for the 2026 election once doing so is again allowed under Ontario law
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