Election Summary
417 municipalities were to hold elections in 2022. This figure includes three upper-tier municipalities that hold elections for regional chairs at the lower tier: Halton Region, Waterloo Region, and Durham Region.

Approximately 6,325 candidates competed for the 2,842 elected positions. 553 positions were uncontested and were therefore acclaimed.

Women [1] comprised 32% of candidates – and 32.3% of elected or acclaimed candidates, which is higher than 29.4% in 2018. Incumbents comprised 33.8% of candidates and captured 57.5% of seats available. In the 2018 election, incumbents comprised 33.9% of candidates and captured 58.7% of seats available. 
 

Voter Turnout
Average voter turnout was 32.9% (based on 385 municipalities that conducted direct elections and provided voter turnout information). In 2018 it was 38.30%.

Women
1,939 of the 6,325 candidates in this election were women. That’s 31% of the total pool of candidates – and a moderate increase over the 27% in 2018, and 24% in the 2014 election.

Women Acclaimed to Office
Of the 553 acclamations, 165 were female. That’s 30% of acclamations, and slightly lower than the percentage of female candidates overall.

Women Elected to Office
Of the 2,283 candidates elected to office, 750 were women. That’s 33% of women running in contested elections. In contrast, 37% of men running in contested elections were successful.

Total number of females elected as:

• Head of council = 110 (92 in 2018)
• Councillors: 942 (includes those that sit on both upper and lower tier)

All Female Councils

Township of Algonquin Highlands elected a council comprised entirely of women.

Success Rates
A candidate’s electoral success depends on the magnitude of her competition, the recognition of her name among the electorate, the size of her war chest, and other factors.[2]  Our data cannot account for all of these influences; information below should be interpreted with caution.

Women [1] were slightly more successful than men in Ontario’s 2022 municipal elections (Table 1). Of 1,939 female candidates, 47.2% were successful. In contrast, 43.8% of the 4,385 men running were successful. Compared to 2018, where 46.4% of women running were successful, and 41.4% of the men running won a seat. 

Incumbents enjoyed a substantial advantage (Table 2). Of 1,791 incumbents running for the same office, 80.1% were successful. This is higher than the success rate for incumbents running for the same office from 2018, which was 76.5%. Of 350 incumbents running for a different office, 59.1% were successful, which is also higher than 57.5% in 2018. In contrast, 28.5% of the 4,184 candidates running for the first time were successful. New candidates elected was around 26.7% in 2018.

Women and men [1] were equally likely to be incumbents. Elected female incumbents (same and new office) at 54.5% were lower than 57.2% for the elected male incumbents. However, 30.9% of females running as new candidates were elected, whereas only 23.4% of new male candidate were elected. (Table 3).

Turnover Rates
Municipalities experienced an average turnover of 42.0%, which is higher than 41.5% in 2018. New candidates captured 42.0% of seats available. Turnover ranged from 0% in 23 municipalities to 100% in 10 municipalities.

Tables

Table 1: Electoral results by gender

Table 2: Electoral results by incumbency

Table 3: Elected candidates by incumbency and gender. Percentages are expressed in terms of the number of candidates of the specified gender and incumbency that competed in a contested election (e.g., 57.3% of female incumbents running for the same office were elected, not including acclaimed candidates).

[1] Disclaimer. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) has generated these election statistics as a public service. AMO cannot guarantee and assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information posted. As of publishing this information, the post-election data is not final.

[2] Kushner, Siegal and Stanwick described relevant factors in Ontario’s municipal elections back in 1997. See their article online or in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, 30 (3): 539-553.