Ask questions. Demand answers!
(Version 3.01, November 12, 2008)
The election links on this page will tell you if you are eligible to vote, what poll, ward or electoral riding you are in, and what candidates are registered to run.
I have included some tenant/housing issues you may or may not agree with, but that you may want to consider and ask your candidates and politicians about.
Election canvassers must be allowed entry into apartment buildings by landlords and their agents (superintendents, property managers, etc.,) under Section 238 of the Residential Tenancies Act Entry by Canvassers and those found guilty of an Penalties for offenses under the act are liable for a fine of up to $25,000 for each individual and up to $100,000 for any corporations.
And it is very similar for condo's, as per this excerpt from the Condominium Act, Section 118:
"No corporation or employee or agent of a corporation shall restrict reasonable access to the property by candidates, or their authorized representatives, for election to the House of Commons, the Legislative Assembly or an office in a municipal government or school board if access is necessary for the purpose of canvassing or distributing election material."
Election signs issues for renters are unclear for municipal and provincial elections.
Some cities put restrictions on them, such as Toronto which is known for its anti-tenant policies, which restricts election signs for municipal elections to no higher that 2 metres off of the ground, but it is something that could clearly be challenged to the Supreme Court of Ontario, as a breach of freedom of speech.
Election signs are clearly spelled out for Canadian federal elections under Section 322 of the Canada Elections Act:
"Election advertising posters
322. (1) No landlord or person acting on their behalf may prohibit a tenant from displaying election advertising posters on the premises to which the lease relates and no condominium corporation or any of its agents may prohibit the owner of a condominium unit from displaying election advertising posters on the premises of his or her unit.
Permitted restrictions
(2) Despite subsection (1), a landlord, person, condominium corporation or agent referred to in that subsection may set reasonable conditions relating to the size or type of election advertising posters that may be displayed on the premises and may prohibit the display of election advertising posters in common areas of the building in which the premises are found."
Though even this law seems to contradict itself, because it appears likely that you have to take down your sign(s) for election day, if your building has a voting polling station in it on election day, as signs are not permitted on polling stations.
Municipal elections for mayors, city councillors, alderman, controllers, and school trustees are now held every 4 years in November, under Province of Ontario law, up from the previous 3. The next elections are on Monday, October 25, 2010.
City of Barrie Municipal Election information
City Vote 2006, City of Brampton
City of Cornwall, Municipal Elections office
Municipal Vote 2006, City of Guelph
City of Hamilton municipal elections page
City of Kingston, City Elections page
City of Kitchener
City of London, Ontario
City of Markham Elections
City of Mississauga election page
City of Ottawa Elections.
Elections 2003, City of St. Catharines
City of Toronto elections information
Toronto election candidates financial statements, including all election campaign contributors over $100
City of Vaughan
City of Waterloo Election 2006.
City of Windsor Elections Office
If your city or town was not listed here, you can visit your municipality's web site. A list of the largest municipalities' govenernment web site can be found on my Canada, Ontario and City government web sites page.
In many cities like Toronto, tenants pay about 4 times the city rate of property taxes than do homeowners and 2 times the rate of condominium owners, yet the costs of providing many city services like garbage collection is cheaper for hise rise apartments.
Building inspections need to be made more "tenant friendly" making it easier for tenants to lodge complaints, for them to be taken seriously, and to preserve and improve rental units rather than shutting them down.
Do a study of the projected cost to tenants, if additional items such as electric generators to provide power to emergency lighting (rather than the typical 30 minute battery power), plus for water pumps and possibly elevators, were added to the "vital services" landlords must provide.
Need to fix errors in Toronto voter list, mayor says, Toronto Star, Oct 30/2007
Elections in the Province of Ontario, now due to changes by the present government are held every 4 years. The next one will be in October 2011.
Elections Ontario, Government of Ontario web site
Find your Electoral District.
Do the search by postal code, address and other ways. From Elections Ontario.
Join the Tenant Rent Freeze Action Campaign a coalition of Toronto Tenants Associations, who are holding all-candidates meetings and are working towards a freeze in rent in Ontario to make up for the rapid increase in rents since the Tenant Protection Act became law which has since been replaced by the Residential Tenancies Act, which while being better in the area of evictions, still did not bring back real rent controls as it retains vacancy decontrol, where a landlord can raise the rent by as much as they want when a tenant moves out.
Sign the Ontario Rent Roll Back Petition by the North Toronto Tenants Network. They first suggested on June 16, 1998, the day before the Tenant Protection Act came into effect, that the only way to undo the damage that would be cause by that new law would be to rollback rents to the day before the law was proclaimed. They make a very persuasive arguement.
Ontario Votes 2007 page by CBC Canada
Ontario Election 2007, The Toronto Star's provincial election section
Ontario Elections news from the Globe and Mail
Politics from Canada.com, Global TV and the National Post
Listing of all Registered Provincial Parties in Ontario
Green Party of Ontario
Liberal Party
Ontario NDP
Progressive Conservative Party
Student Vote Canada, if your school wants to get involved in the Ontario Election and want to hold your own elections held by the students.
Bring back full unconditional Rent Controls (not tied to the tenant remaining in the apartment). Visit my Ontario Rent Control Facts page for more information. The government is falsely claiming that "vacancy decontrol" where the landlord can raise the rent an unregulated amount on a rental unit whenever a tenant moves out is "real rent control" when it is clearly not!
Bring back the Rent Registry to help prevent landlords charging illegal rents
End the Annual Rent Guideline that acts as a minimum rent increase and allows landlords to get triple-dip rent increases. See Annual Rent Increase Guideline.
Bring back the provision from the old Rent Control Act, that above guideline rent increases for capital expenditures and repairs should only be for necessary repairs or renovations and not due to lack of ongoing maintenance by the landlord.
End the provision under the Residential Tenancies Act, that if a landlord charges an illegal rent for more than a year before the tenant files a formal complaint that illegal rent becomes "legal" as per Section 136 Rent Deemed Lawful. Leaving that provision in only invites landlords to charge illegal rents.
Do not enact Part VIII of the Residential Tenancies Act, Smart Meters. This part of the Act will force the 75-85% of all tenants in Ontario whose leases include electricity to separate it from the rent and to install "Smart Meters". The government has claimed falsely that by making tenants pay the electricity costs directly will lead to a large amount of energy conservation. They in fact know that the two largest users by far of electricity are electric heating for those who have that, and older refridgerators, both owned by the landlord, and so obviously the tenants can't do anything about this, it is up to the landlord. Rather than leading to any appreciable amount of energy conservation this will only be used to complicate billings to raise your hydro electricity bills.
Actually implement the fines allowed under the Act, when landlords file false or misleading documents to the Landlord Tenant Board. I have been fighting this issue for over 20 years, and no government has been willing to fine landlords for doing things such as filing false bills for rent increases, which only encourages bad landlords to continue doing so.
Have elevators added as a "vital service" under the law.
For more housing policy issues visit the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The next Federal election in Canada is on October 14, 2008.
Click on, Elections Canada, for federal election information from the Government of Canada, and find your federal election district by postal code to find out what riding you are in.
Get back into the business of housing Canadian citizens by building public housing. Canada is the only western nation not to have a national housing program since ours was ended in 1993.
Provide substantial new federal funding for the crown corporation, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC,) to stimulation the construction of affordable public and private housing, through reduced mortgage rates. Set up a national housing insurance program through CMHC to counter the riduculous rates being charged to tenants, homeowners and yes even landlords by insurance companies who often use "September 11" as an excuse for high insurance premiums.
Get CMHC whose Chair was the former head of the one of the largest landlord corporations in Canada, to fix its skewed rental housing market statistics often used by governments to set housing policies.
These statistics understate rents, as they do not reflect the facts that since June 17, 1998, when the Tenant Protection Act , came into effect in Ontario, and continuing under the Residential Tenancies Act, Ontario 2006, where under Vacancy Decontrol landlords can increase rents to new tenants by an unrestricted amount, landlords have been making parking spaces an additional charge not included in the statistics, causing rents to be understated probably by some 5% in the statistics.
This understatement of rents in the "official" statistics will probably be further exaggerated under the Residential Tenancies Act, Ontario 2006, which forces the separation of electricity bills from rents, when historically, the vast majority of apartments in Ontario have always included hydro costs in the rents tenants pay.
For more housing policy issues the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.