2014 Municipal Election Stats

Read some findings gleaned from the 2014 Ontario Votes election data.

Total Council seats:  3,306  (444 municipal governments in Ontario)

Some 7,290 candidates ran, of which 1,647 were women (22.6%). In 2010, 8,039 candidates ran, of which 1,495 were women (18.5%).

AMO congratulates the 1,271 returning members and 1,598 new members of council. That equates to almost 56% new faces of 2,869 elected positions, compared to 44% in 2010. The percentage of women elected is 21.6% compared to 26% for the 2010-2014 term.

Some notable statistics also include:

• Average voter turnout is 43.12 (389 municipalities reporting)
• Largest voter turnout 86.63% - Town of Latchford, lowest 15.81% - Town of Petawawa (389 municipalities reporting)
• 18 municipalities entire council acclaimed
• 3 municipalities had partial council entirely acclaimed, 2 of which do not have a head of council and one of which does not have the 4th council member. The vacancies are to be dealt with at the first council meeting in December.
• 78 female heads of council
• 96 new councillors and heads of council took AMO's So You Want To Run For Council online course
• 10 municipalities had referendum questions
• 12 municipalities reduced their size of council
• 4 municipalities increased their size of council
• The Ontario Votes site was a great success and had over 119,000 pageviews

Congratulations to all council members both new and re-elected, on taking on this important role within your municipality.  A lot of work is before you now that the buzz and excitement of the election is over. Let the new term begin!