Ontario Election 2022: The Ontario Election Has Officially Been Called

This article is part of a series extensively covering the 2022 Ontario general election. It provides voters and business leaders a 360 degree view of all the rules and regulations affecting the campaign and voting, as well as insights into news and other developments this election season. It is intended as general guidance only.

To view the rest of our coverage, please visit Ontario Election 2022.

Well, it's official! The next Ontario general election is set to take place on June 2, 2022.

On May 3, 2022, Premier Doug Ford visited the Hon. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and asked her to call an election, by directing the issuance of the Writs of Election. That means that Ontario is now in the "election period", where certain rules and reporting obligations apply to third party advertisers, broadcasters, and more. Learn more about obligations of sellers of advertising here, and the rules on donations and those that advertise here.

So who's running? Ontarians can generally expect to see candidates from four political parties appearing on their ballot this year:

• the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, led by incumbent Premier Doug Ford;
• the Ontario New Democratic Party, led by incumbent Leader of the Official Opposition, Andrea Horwath;
• the Ontario Liberal Party, led by Steven Del Duca, former Cabinet Minister in the Kathleen Wynne government; and
• the Green Party of Ontario, led by incumbent Member of Provincial Parliament Mike Schreiner.

The last provincial general election in Ontario saw the highest voter turnout since 2003, with 58% of Ontarians casting a ballot. Visit our blog post on Voting 101 here  to find out how you can avoid the line-ups and vote in advance of Election Day, and our blog post here  to note employers' obligations on Election Day.

After the polls close on Election Day,  Elections Ontario will publish the unofficial results on its website. These results will not include a breakdown of poll-by-poll results; rather, they will give the number of votes cast for each candidate. A few days later, the Returning Officer will conduct the official tabulation and provide an official report to the Chief Electoral Officer, which will include the number of marked, declined, unmarked, and rejected ballots. The Chief Electoral Officer will then declare the results official and publish a notice in the Ontario Gazette with the names of candidates elected as Members of Provincial Parliament who will form the 43^rd Parliament of Ontario.

This article is part of our 2022 Ontario provincial election series. You can access related content here.

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The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.