Premier Doug Ford, riding high in the polls, is planning to spend some political capital to dramatically change the way democracy works in Ontario.
Attorney General Doug Downey is seeking to reform the Elections Act to end fixed election dates in Ontario, a practice that is currently in place in at the federal level and in all of Canada’s provinces, except Nova Scotia.
Fixed election dates set a specific date for an election to be held once every four years, barring the government’s defeat in the Legislature on a confidence measure, to try to ensure that the incumbent government doesn’t call on election at a politically opportune time in order to try to gain an additional edge in seeking another term.
Fixed election dates are set by law, but do not override the constitutional ability of the lieutenant governor to call an early election at the request of the premier. Ford used this loophole earlier this year to call an early election, less than three years into his second mandate.
Downey calls the move a good thing for Ontario’s democracy.
“The proposed reforms will return Ontario to an electoral process that served our province well for nearly a century and a half, prior to the imposition of American-style fixed election dates,” said Downey. “With these reforms, governments will be better positioned to respond to changing circumstances and external threats, including by seeking a fresh mandate from the people of Ontario when it is needed.”
However, the fixed election date legislation certainly didn’t stop Ford from calling an early election earlier this year to respond to what the government considered an external threat, so it’s an open question as to why the government feels it needs to repeal the legislation to allow for that possibility.
Governments had, since fixed election dates were put in place under former premier Dalton McGuinty in 2005, stuck to the fixed election date timetable in every Ontario election up until earlier this year, when Ford used U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs as a pretext to trigger an early vote.
Along with the end of fixed election dates, the Ford government plans to end limits on pre-election campaign spending for political parties and third parties. Given that only the government will likely know when the next campaign will be without fixed election dates, this should give the incumbent party yet another advantage.
Another key change is the government’s plan to make permanent the per-vote subsidy, something the Ford Progressive Conservatives promised long ago to scrap because of its cost to taxpayers. The per vote subsidy gives a certain amount of taxpayer dollars to political parties based on the number of votes they received in the last election four times a year. It’s a taxpayer gravy train that Ford promised to end that was created by his predecessor, Kathleen Wynne.
Making the per vote subsidy permanent may just be a way to throw the opposition parties a bone when it comes to this suite of changes, which they are likely to oppose in general.
A final major change the legislation makes is to increase the amount of money an individual can donate to a political party each year from $3,400 to $5,000 beginning in 2026, which the government says is in line with provinces like Alberta, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia. Future increases would then be indexed to inflation.
Further, more minor, rule changes are being made to how third parties can operate in Ontario elections, with an increase in oversight being the general theme.
These changes, generally, should be seen as a clear attempt by Ford to strengthen his grip on politics in Ontario. The highlight here is clearly the end of fixed election dates. Eliminating fixed election dates in favour of having the premier decide when elections should be held tips the scales back in favour of the incumbent government when it comes to future elections. Governments already have so much they can control, including handing out tax breaks or increasing government spending ahead of writ periods, and that level of control will only increase through this legislation.
In general, then, these changes are designed the favour the re-election of incumbent governments. At a time when the Progressive Conservatives currently dominate Ontario politics, observers will likely see Ford’s changes to the Elections Act as largely self-serving.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
