Some fun facts about municipal politics that you should know ahead of this fall's elections
Ahead of this fall's elections, here are some fun facts about municipal politics that one should keep in mind when looking into heading to the polls. Some of these fun facts help to clarify what Canada's political structure looks like, while others highlight some unique features of Canadian municipal elections.
Unlike at the provincial and federal level, municipal governments are not their own thing
In fact, they're defined as creations of provincial/territorial governments. For example, the policies that the mayor of Toronto might want to undertake are dependent on provincial funding or even the kind of government in power at Queen's Park.
In fact, provincial governments can dissolve or combine municipalities together
Let's consider the Greater Toronto Area, which has seen historical and recent examples of these phenomena.
When Mike Harris and his Progressive Conservatives were elected in 1995, one of his first policy goals was to guide the combination of smaller towns and cities into larger municipalities. Throughout the late-1990's, his government sought to combine municipalities across the province; this included the amalgamation of the City of Toronto and its neighbouring municipalities.
More recently, the provincial government attempted to dissolve Peel Region into smaller municipalities, though they ended up backing away from the plan. Instead, they opted to focus on local services and invest in their reinforcement.
Property taxes are the main source of revenue for municipal governments
The Fraser Institute claimed that, in 2025, 44.1% of municipal revenue stemmed from property taxes, which is markedly above the historical average. This can be seen to come from population increases, which requires additional housing to be built.
Local city councils are responsible for deciding these tax rates, which are then calculated alongside a property's value to yield a property tax due.
There can be political parties in municipal elections
Some provinces allow for political parties in municipal elections. This is most often seen in municipalities in Quebec, but there are other cases across Canada, including Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary.
More on Vancouver
Vancouver is notable for being one of the only Canadian cities to use the plurality block method for voting. This voting method is defined as one where citizens vote for the same number of candidates as positions to be filled. In the case of Vancouver, voters select 10 candidates to fill the city council's 11 seats (one of those seats is held by the mayor), seven people to fill the city's park board, and nine individuals to fill the city's school board. In each race, the candidates with the most votes are elected regardless of party affiliation.
To help simplify the way in which votes in Vancouver are counted, let's consider the 2022 municipal election as an example.
In the 2022 municipal election, ABC Vancouver leader Ken Sim was elected as Vancouver's mayor with 50.96% of the vote. He defeated the incumbent mayor, Forward Together leader Kennedy Stewart, by well over 35,000 votes.
For the city council seats, ABC Vancouver won seven of the 11 seats; all six nominated candidates not only finding their way to city council alongside Sim, but they each were among the top-six candidates in terms of vote totals. Below the seven ABC Vancouver candidates, two GREEN candidates and one OneCity member was elected.
The same story went for the park board, where all six of the nominated ABC Vancouver candidates secured seats. The one remaining seat went to a GREEN candidate, who secured the seventh-most amount of votes.
Once again, ABC Vancouver swept their way into the school board, with all five nominees finishing in the top-five for voting. One candidate from each of the OneCity and COPE parties secured the sixth and seventh most votes respectively, while two GREEN candidates rounded out the voting.
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