Every four years, on the fourth Monday in October, Ontarians go to the polls to elect their mayors, councillors, and school board trustees. The percentage of the electorate who actually vote – voter turnout – is a common measure of civic engagement in local democracy.
We compared voter turnout data across the three most recent municipal election waves in Ontario for every city and town with more than 75,000 residents.[1] Combined, these 34 municipalities had 7.1 million eligible electors in 2022.
We will likely update these charts with 2026 municipal election data when it becomes available.
Voter turnout declined in most Ontario municipal elections between 2014 and 2022
Turnout fell in both 2018 and 2022 in 18 of 34 municipalities. Only Ottawa’s rose in both years.
Voter turnout in municipal elections
Each thin line is one municipality's turnout
Compare with other elections:
In 2014, only 3 of the 34 municipalities had turnout below 30%. In 2022, this number rose to 21. Commentators and news articles pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic and to election fatigue as potential reasons (the October 2022 municipal elections came less than five months after the June 2022 provincial election and 13 months after the September 2021 federal election, though the 2014 and 2018 municipal elections also followed June provincial elections).[2] Research from Europe has found that more frequent elections tend to lower turnout.[3]
Earlier research does suggest some reasons why turnout differs between municipalities. A study including Canadian Municipal Barometer data on 233 municipalities in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta, in their 2017 and 2018 elections, found that turnout was higher where there were more local newspapers per resident and they published more often, where councils had more seats relative to population, and where there was a lower share of residents aged 18 to 34.[4]
In our look at Ontario's largest municipalities 2014-2022 we find that, in all three elections, single-tier cities – which are not part of a regional government – had higher median turnout than lower-tier municipalities within regions such as Peel and York. We also find that turnout tends to be lower where the winning mayoral candidate took a larger share of the vote.
Turnout in Ontario municipal elections tended to be lower where the mayor won with a larger share of the vote
Toronto’s highest turnout came in 2014, when its mayor was elected with only 40% of the vote. Ottawa’s came in 2022, when its mayor was elected with 51%.
Voter turnout relative to the winning mayoral candidate's share of the vote
Another factor is voting method. Half of the 34 municipalities offered internet voting in 2022, up from 10 in 2014. A study of Ontario municipal elections from 2000 to 2014 found that offering internet voting raised turnout by about 3.5 points.[5] In our more recent data, the four municipalities that introduced internet voting in 2022 saw turnout rise or change by less than a point, while it fell in every other municipality except Ottawa. The four that introduced it in 2018 had mixed results: turnout rose 4.9 points in Thunder Bay but fell in Newmarket, Kawartha Lakes, and Pickering.
Municipalities in Ontario that introduced internet voting in 2022 did not see the drop in turnout seen elsewhere
The four that introduced it in 2018 showed no such difference.
Change in voter turnout from the previous municipal election
For example, turnout decreasing from 35% to 30% is shown as −5
Methods and data
Turnout data are from the Municipal election results dataset published by the Government of Ontario. We included every single-tier and lower-tier municipality with a population above 75,000 (based on the 2021 Census of Population).
Turnout is the number of electors who voted divided by the number of electors on the voters' list. Voters' lists are not always up to date, since they can include people who have moved away or died and miss people who have recently moved in or become eligible. The accuracy of this can vary between places and between elections, so small differences in turnout should be read with caution.
We replaced three values with data published by the cities themselves. The provincial dataset had no data for Toronto in 2014, so we used the City of Toronto's 2014 election report. For Toronto in 2018, the provincial dataset lists far fewer electors than the City's final count, so we used the City's 2018 election report. For Barrie in 2018, the provincial dataset's turnout is much higher than the City of Barrie reported, so we used the City's data.
The mayoral results are from the same dataset's files of successful candidates, which give the votes cast for the winning candidate and the total votes cast for the office. We divided the first by the second. The dataset does not list losing candidates, so we could not calculate the margin of victory with this data. Three of the 102 contests are left out of the second chart. Newmarket's mayor was acclaimed in 2022, and the data has no total for Milton in 2022. For St. Catharines in 2014, the data lists more votes for mayor than electors who voted. For Peterborough in 2018, the data's total votes for mayor does not match the sum of the two candidates' votes, so we used the sum.
Whether each municipality offered internet voting is also from the provincial dataset, which records the voting methods each municipality used, including internet voting only during advance voting.
We noticed a couple of discrepancies in the source data, which we fixed before creating the chart. A) The provincial dataset lists internet voting in Oakville in 2018, but the Association of Municipalities of Ontario's list of voting methods and the Town's count of ballots by polling location show that every ballot was cast in person. B) The provincial dataset was blank for Toronto in 2014, but the City's 2014 election report does not indicate that the City offered internet voting.
Provincial turnout in the first chart is from Elections Ontario's statistical summary of previous general elections, and is all ballots cast as a share of electors on the voters' list. Federal turnout is from Elections Canada's official voting results. We include voter turnout in Ontario only.
Marshall, S. (2023, March 7). Election: Voter turnout in 2022. Spacing Toronto. URL.The Canadian Press. (2022, October 25). Where were the voters? Low Ontario turnout caused by fatigue and non-competitive race: experts. CBC News. URL.
Kostelka, F., Krejcova, E., Sauger, N., & Wuttke, A. (2023). Election frequency and voter turnout. Comparative Political Studies, 56(14), 2231–2268. DOI.
Eidelman, G., Merrill, R., McMahon, N., Vanhooren, S., McCoy, K., Sachdeva, R., Galati, K., Exon Smith, K., Breux, S., & Lucas, J. (2026). The State of Local Democracy in Canada: Insights from the Canadian Municipal Barometer, 2020–25. School of Cities. URL.Andrews, B., & Pruysers, S. (2022). Does democracy die in darkness? An examination of the relationship between local newspaper health and turnout in municipal politics. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 55(4), 958–971. DOI.
Goodman, N., & Stokes, L. C. (2020). Reducing the cost of voting: An evaluation of internet voting's effect on turnout. British Journal of Political Science, 50(3), 1155–1167. DOI.
