In some Ontario municipalities, acclamations mean no elections next week

Ontarians in hundreds of municipalities will head to the polls next Monday, but in Kapuskasing it will be a day just like any other.

The northern Ontario town of roughly 8,100 is one of several communities essentially bypassing the municipal vote after only one candidate stepped forward for each elected position, from school board trustee to mayor.

“I’m so happy,” Kapuskasing Mayor David Plourde, who first won the job in 2018 and ran unopposed in the last election in 2022, said in a recent interview.

After a brief bid for a provincial seat last year, Plourde said he’s “completely content” not to take on another campaign so soon. “I was knocking on doors a year and a half ago in -35, -40 degree weather. To have to do it again, it would just suck,” he said.

Four of the six council spots are going to the incumbents, and the other two will be filled by people Plourde has worked with in the past “in some way, shape or form,” he said, adding he sees the acclamations as a sign that residents support the current leadership and its work.

“I think everything’s going to go smoothly. I think we’re going to take the opportunity to onboard everybody early so … when the bell rings, we’ll hit the ground running, and hopefully we’ll be able to come up with a budget real early and get right to work,” he said.

Meanwhile, he noted, “the municipality saves themselves 60 grand for elections.”

Fewer candidates have been acclaimed in these elections than in the last ballot — 400 compared with 548 in 2022, bringing the tally more in line with historical numbers, according to data compiled by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Similarly, fewer municipalities have seen their entire councils acclaimed this time around, the association reported. Nineteen municipalities, or five per cent of those holding elections, have been fully acclaimed, down from 32 municipalities in 2022 and 26 in 2018.

Acclamations are more common in smaller municipalities, and Kapuskasing is the largest to be fully acclaimed, the association said. The smallest is the Township of Brethour, a northern community of just over 100 along the Ontario-Quebec border.

As well, more than half the municipal governments subject to voting this fall experienced low candidature, which the association defines as a situation where one or more candidates are acclaimed or positions have no more than two candidates competing.

In Fauquier-Strickland, a cash-strapped township just east of Kapuskasing that received a provincial bailout last year, no one stepped forward to run for mayor or council before the August registration deadline.

The cutoff date was pushed back so that residents could throw their hat in the ring, and a handful of people will now vie for four council seats. Pierre Lamontagne, a current councillor, has been acclaimed as mayor.

The association, which had voiced concerns about low participation ahead of the nominations deadline, said the total number of candidates has increased in these elections, “enough that it’s moving in the right direction.”

The drop in acclamations is also a good sign, said Lindsay Jones, the association’s executive director.

“There’s nothing inherently wrong with acclamations. A lot of the time, it can mean that the population is generally happy with the job that folks are doing,” she said in a recent interview.

“But we do like to have a balance and we like for voters to be able to have choice. So, you know, ideally a mix of folks who have that experience in municipal government and understand the issues and are familiar with the process, mixed with folks who are bringing new ideas and perspectives, is what we’re aiming for.”

The association has been offering free workshops to those potentially interested in running for office to help them get familiar with the process and the job itself, Jones said. And while there’s an ebb and flow to participation and acclamations over time, she said AMO is interpreting this year’s numbers as “folks understanding the value and importance of participating in the process and wanting to be a part of those conversations and decisions going forward.”

There’s debate among researchers regarding the reasons that lead to acclamations, said Joe Lyons, the director of Western University’s Local Government Program. One possible cause is apathy, but some researchers say it could be related to satisfaction, he said.

For potential candidates, there are several possible deterrents and hurdles to running for office, Lyons said, one of them being the lack of political infrastructure to recruit and foster future contenders.

“It’s like low pay, long hours, little recognition … especially with the sort of decline in civility, both on council and then in terms of like the public towards members of council,” he said in an interview.

“And so, you know, it’s a tough sell to get people to want to run. I definitely think the nature of being a councillor has changed right now that we’re so connected, so it’s not as though you can go and attend a meeting a month kind of thing and that’s the job, right?” he said.

“You’re answering emails, you’re responding to comments on social media (and) some of them might be very negative.”

If we want local democracy to function, we may need to rethink what’s being asked of both municipalities and their governments, Lyons said.

“Maybe it’s too much,” he said. “Especially in Ontario, the push is towards larger municipalities doing more things on behalf of the province, and so that expands the scope of issues that councils have to deal with.”

As they face big-picture issues such as housing and economic uncertainty, several local acclaimed politicians say skipping the campaign won’t affect how they approach the job or engage with constituents.

“An acclamation does not reduce the responsibility to listen, respond and remain accountable,” Nancy Peckford posted on Facebook shortly after being acclaimed as mayor of North Grenville, a township of approximately 18,000 people south of Ottawa, a few months ago.

“The next council will continue to face important decisions about affordability, growth, infrastructure, community services and how we care for one another,” she wrote, promising to seek residents’ input regarding their priorities over the weeks that followed.

Christa Lowry, who has been acclaimed for a second consecutive time as mayor of Mississippi Mills, said she feels “an even greater responsibility to reach out.”

Lowry and her colleagues on council — four of whom have also been acclaimed, along with a fifth candidate — have worked to establish ongoing communication with the Ottawa-area municipality’s roughly 15,000 residents who, in return, respond in droves to budget surveys and show up to information sessions, she said in a recent interview.

“It’s a four-year conversation. It’s not, you know, having a couple months’ worth of conversations just before an election,” she said.

A key priority for the next four years will be tackling the pressures of growth as more people move to Mississippi Mills from Ottawa, she said.

Though Nicole Fortier Levesque will be one of two newcomers acclaimed to Kapuskasing’s town council, she is no stranger to municipal politics or the issues at play in the region. The retired teacher spent a decade as the mayor of nearby Moonbeam before moving to Kapuskasing, a bilingual, predominantly francophone community, and making an unsuccessful run for the federal New Democrats last year.

In an interview earlier this month, she listed affordable housing, infrastructure and support for a financially fragile local paper mill as top concerns for the next four years, but lamented the lack of opportunity to petition residents directly about what matters to them.

“I’ve always had to work hard to get elected and I have to admit that deep down I’m disappointed (not to have to campaign) because I like going out to meet people, I liked seeing exactly what’s on their mind,” she said in French.

“And now, I get the impression that I’m missing something very, very important.”

Aside from the financial savings, Fortier Levesque said she doesn’t see any advantages to acclamation, though it won’t change her attitude toward the community or what she wants to achieve. “It’s just that I find it’s up to people to choose the representation they want on municipal council,” she said.

Plourde, Kapuskasing’s mayor, said people in a small community will always find a way to share their concerns with officials.

“If you go into the grocery store or you go wherever you go, there’s always a conversation to be had,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press