State of the Election — 2026

One question, asked at two scales: what can a voter actually read before voting day — Monday, October 26, 2026? The State of the Election is the running, dated answer — for Toronto, and now for all of Ontario. The whole field, mapped honestly, in editions that publish roughly every two weeks between now and voting day. Nothing below is a prediction or an endorsement; it’s a record, sourced and dated as it’s built, and it serves every candidate identically.

What do I do right now?

Toronto 2026 25 wards The city where this record began: the field, the platforms, and the raw math of every council race. Ontario 2026 2,289 races The same instrument, applied province-wide — 3,180 seats to fill across 414 directly-electing municipalities and 73 school boards.

Two by-elections vote before the municipal race

2 races

Both overlap Toronto wards but are separate offices, separate ballots, separate rules — run by Elections Canada and Elections Ontario, not the City. Same standard as everything else on this page: sourced, dated, no ranking, no endorsement.

Beaches–East York — federal MP

Monday, August 31, 2026. Six candidates, final. Overlaps city Ward 19 — boundaries are close but not identical.

Scarborough Southwest — provincial MPP

Thursday, September 3, 2026. Seven candidates registered, provisional until nominations close Aug 20. Shares boundaries with city Ward 20.

Full rosters, key dates, and how-to-vote details for both races: Ward 19 page and Ward 20 page. Both re-verified live 2026-08-15 against Elections Canada and Elections Ontario / Beach Metro.

Toronto 2026

25 wards

The city where this record began: the field, the platforms, and the raw math of every council race.

The baseline

The whole field, honestly mapped — the standing record the biweekly editions build on. Start here.

The Platform Baseline

Every candidate’s published platform, measured for breadth, depth and quality, re-measured with each edition.

Ward math cards

All 25 Toronto wards, one card each: the 2022 baseline and the 2026 filed-candidate list, provisional until nominations close August 21, 2026.

Ontario 2026

2,289 races 414 directly-electing municipalities 73 school boards 3,180 seats to fill 4,743 candidates researched

The same instrument, applied province-wide.

Ontario: The Empty Ballot

The flagship analysis. 85.9% of Ontario’s 4,743 researched municipal candidates have published nothing a voter can hold them to — and it’s a structural story, not a lazy-candidates story.

State of the Election — Ontario

The province-wide record: all 2,289 races, every candidate researched.

The Ontario Platform Baseline

Every published platform in the province — same instrument, same receipts as Toronto’s.

Every race, one page

Per-race pages for every one of the 2,289 races — find where you live and see what’s on offer.

The biweekly editions

Every two weeks between now and voting day, a new dated edition of this record will publish here. Nothing is posted before it exists; this list only shows what’s real right now.

In production — not yet live
Edition 1 — August 2026

The first biweekly snapshot of the race. In production now; it will appear here, dated, the day it publishes — not before.
Future editions arrive every two weeks after that, on the same honest terms, all the way to voting day.

The equipment

The record tells you what exists. These are the tools that go with it — free, open, and offered to everyone on identical terms.

Every figure on this site carries a date. Every correction is public, not quiet. Read the method: How we verify · found something wrong? Tell us.

— The Unknown Soldier · uniteTOlove · Toronto