Team empowerment
A campaign is a team, not a solo act. This page covers the volunteer roles that carry most of the load, the basics of election agents and scrutineers on voting day, and the one spending rule every volunteer needs to know before they put money down on the campaign’s behalf.
Volunteer roles
- Canvass lead — organizes walk lists, briefs canvassers, keeps the doorknocking schedule moving.
- Data/records keeper — owns the spreadsheet or tool tracking donations, expenses, and voter contact — the person who can answer “where did we already knock” or “what have we spent so far” at any moment.
- Social media lead — runs the campaign’s public accounts and keeps posting consistent with the candidate’s voice and the campaign’s finance and disclosure obligations.
- Driver/logistics — handles rides for the candidate and volunteers, sign delivery, and event set-up/tear-down — unglamorous, and usually the role that makes everything else possible on schedule.
Election agent and scrutineer basics
- Campaigning on voting day itself is allowed in Ontario municipal elections (unlike some other jurisdictions) — but not inside the voting place itself.
- A scrutineer’s role is personal observation of the process — watching that procedures are followed — not participation in it.
- Scrutineers may typically access the voting place up to 15 minutes before voting begins, to observe set-up.
- Generally, one scrutineer per ballot box/voting station per candidate, and each scrutineer needs a written appointment from the candidate (or their official agent) to be admitted.
- Vote counting begins at 8:00 p.m., after the close of voting.
- After the count, ballot boxes/materials are sealed and the seal is signed by the election officials and any scrutineers present who wish to sign.
- Results announced on voting night are unofficial until the clerk’s formal declaration.
The rule a volunteer team needs to know before it spends anything
Under Ontario’s campaign finance rules, expenses are generally attributed to whoever incurs them at the direction of the candidate — meaning a volunteer who spends campaign money (or their own money, intending reimbursement, or in-kind) without that direction can create a real compliance problem for the candidate’s financial statement. The practical takeaway for a first-time team: agree up front on who is authorized to approve spending, and make sure every volunteer knows not to spend on the campaign’s behalf without checking first. This is a general orientation, not a substitute for the Candidates’ Guide’s finance chapter — see “Where to go for the official, binding word.”
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