The 2022 Ontario election has entered its critical phase; with the Leaders’ Debates finished, and the long weekend behind us, we've arrived at the final week before the election when most voters will actually tune in and make their decision. That’s why we need your help to move our #RestoreLocalChoice campaign forward and raise the profile of municipal ranked ballots as an election issue right now. 

Please read on for an update on our election activities, our plans for the next week, and some ways you can help.

Candidate Pledge Campaign

In our last newsletter, we promised you an update on our Candidate Pledge campaign, the centrepiece of our election activities. We’ve already had great success with more than 65 candidates taking the pledge to #RestoreLocalChoice and give back to municipalities the ability to use ranked ballots for their own elections. You can check our campaign webpage to see which candidates in your riding have, and have not taken the pledge. We’ll also be giving updates (like this one) on which party is ahead in terms of candidates who have taken the pledge.

We’ve also gone through all four major parties’ platforms and identified where they stand on the issue of municipal ranked ballots. Encouragingly, the Greens, the Liberals, and the NDP have all committed, in one way or another, to giving municipalities back the ability to use ranked ballots. We hope that this means we can count on all their candidates to take our Candidate Pledge as well. But we need your help to make sure that happens.

How you can help

Your help is even more critical in these final few days of the election campaign. Since our last newsletter, we’ve launched a new, updated website to help provide better resources for supporters to use in helping push for municipal ranked ballots as we close in on voting day. Here are 5 ways you can help raise the profile of ranked ballots and encourage voters to vote for candidates who will #RestoreLocalChoice:

• Vote for candidates that have taken the Candidate Pledge to give municipalities the ability to once again use ranked ballots for their own elections.
• Ask candidates in your riding, whether on social media or in person, who have not yet taken the Candidate Pledge, to do so ASAP. If they are members of the Green, Liberal, or New Democratic parties, ask them why they haven’t when their parties have already made these commitments. 
• Amplify RaBIT’s Twitter and Facebook posts by liking and sharing them. We are celebrating those candidates who have taken the pledge and encouraging those who haven’t to do so. The more attention these posts receive, the more powerful they will be.
• Attend All Candidates Meetings in your riding and ask the candidates if they support ranked ballots, if they have taken the pledge, and why.
• Talk to your friends and family about this issue (we’ve got lots of great resources to support you) and ask them to consider voting for candidates who support ranked ballots and restoring local choice. This is especially important if your friends/family live in ridings where the result might be close.

Closing it out

We will be back in touch with one final update on the Candidate Pledge campaign before voting day. As always, thank you for your incredible support.