The 2022 Ontario general election was held on June 2, 2022, to elect Members of the Provincial Parliament to serve in the

43rd Parliament of Ontario The 43rd Parliament of Ontario was the session of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from August 8, 2022 to January 28, 2025 with the membership having been determined by the results of the 2022 Ontario general election, 2022 general election ...

. The governing Progressive Conservatives, led by Premier

Doug Ford Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party since 2018. He represents the Toronto rid ...

, were re-elected to a second

majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...

, winning 7 more seats than they had won in 2018. The NDP retained their status as the

Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

, despite losing seats and finishing third in the popular vote, while the Ontario Liberals finished 2nd in the popular vote, but only won 8 seats, a gain of one seat from 2018 but falling short of

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. The

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retained the single seat they won in 2018 while the New Blue and

Ontario Party The Ontario Party is a minor right-wing populist and socially conservative political party in the Canadian province of Ontario, founded in 2018. History The Ontario Party was founded on May 17, 2018, during the 2018 Ontario general election, by ...

failed to win a seat, both losing their lone sitting MPPs. A total of 4,701,959 valid votes were cast in this election, as well as a smaller number of invalid ballots. The election set a record for the lowest voter turnout in an Ontario provincial election, as only 44.06% of the people who were eligible voted. This broke the previous record for low turnout of 48.2% in the 2011 election.

Background

As of December 2016, Ontario elections are held on or before the first Thursday in June in the fourth calendar year following the previous general election. In the June 2018 Ontario general election, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) led by

won a strong

. The

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

(NDP) led by

Andrea Horwath Andrea Lynn Horwath (; born October 24, 1962) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 58th List of mayors of Hamilton, Ontario, mayor of Hamilton since 2022. Horwath served as the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) from 200 ...

became the

; this was the first time since

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

they surpassed their third-place status. The governing

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

led by

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Kathleen Wynne Kathleen O'Day Wynne ( ; born May 21, 1953) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), member of provinci ...

was decimated, winning only 7 out of the 124 seats in the

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

and being reduced to third-place status. The

won its first seat in history, with leader

Mike Schreiner Michael John Schreiner ( ; born 9 June 1969) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Green Party of Ontario since 2009. Schreiner sits as a Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), ...

becoming its first Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP). Wynne resigned as leader immediately after the 2018 election and MPP John Fraser succeeded her as interim leader; he held that post until March 2020, when Wynne's former

minister of transportation A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

Steven Del Duca Steven Alfonso Del Duca (born July 7, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been serving as the Mayors of Vaughan, mayor of Vaughan since 2022. Del Duca previously served as the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2020 to 2022 and was an ...

, became permanent leader of the Liberal Party. Meanwhile, Horwath and Schreiner both remained leader of their parties and had no intention of resigning. By December 2019, polling showed that the Ford government was as unpopular as the previous Wynne government. However, the Progressive Conservatives experienced a surge of support during the early months of the

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; a Mainstreet Research poll in June 2020 showed the PCs at 42 percent, the Liberals at 28 percent, and the NDP at 23 percent. On October 5, 2020, Ontario MPPs voted unanimously in favour of a motion stating that the government will not call an election prior to the fixed election date in 2022. Before this vote, the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

could have been dissolved earlier by the

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario The lieutenant governor of Ontario (, in French: ''Lieutenant-gouverneur'' (if male) or ''Lieutenante-gouverneure'' (if female) ''de l'Ontario'') is the representative in Ontario of the monarch, who operates distinctly within the province but i ...

on a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

or if the Premier triggered a

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(the former was extremely unlikely to work against the incumbent government with a

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). In April 2021, the province experienced a major third wave of COVID-19 infections, and, after quickly reversing government health policies, such as opening and then abruptly closing restaurants, the government was criticized over their handling of COVID-19. This led to the PCs' support dipping, but remaining ahead of the Liberals and NDP. In late April 2022 – days before the election call – the Ford government released its budget, promising to implement it if the government was reelected. The budget recorded a deficit of $19.9 billion and promised substantial spending on infrastructure (including for their proposed Highway 413) and tax breaks for some workers and seniors. On May 3, 2022, Premier Doug Ford met with the

advise ADVISE (Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement) is a research and development program within the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Threat and Vulnerability Testing and Assessment (TVTA) portfoli ...

dissolution of the legislature and for writs of election be drawn up.

Timeline

2018

*June 7: The

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC; ), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party, or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada. During its uninterr ...

(PC) under Doug Ford wins a majority government in the

42nd Ontario general election The 2018 Ontario general election was held on June 7, 2018, to elect the 124 members of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, led by Doug Ford, won 76 of the 124 seats in the legislature and formed a majo ...

, with

New Democrats New Democrats may refer to: * New Democratic Party, a social democratic party in Canada * New Democrats (United States), the ideological centrist faction of the Democratic Party ** New Democrat Coalition, the related caucus in the United State ...

(NDP) forming the Official Opposition. After leading the party to the worst result in its history, outgoing Premier

resigns as leader of the

Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; , PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Bonnie Crombie since December 2023. The party espouses the principles of liberalism, with their rival the Progressive Co ...

, but remains MPP for Don Valley West. *June 14:

Ottawa South Ottawa South () is a federal Electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is represented in the House of Commons of Canada by David McGuinty, brother of former Premier of Ontario and Ottawa South Member of Pro ...

MPP John Fraser is named interim leader of the

. *June 29: Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford is sworn in as the 26th Premier of Ontario. *July 11: Wellington—Halton Hills MPP

Ted Arnott Theodore Calvin Arnott (born April 8, 1963) is a Canadian politician who was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on September 6, 1990, representing the Riding of Wellington. He is a member of the Progressive Conservative Party o ...

, a Progressive Conservative, is elected Speaker by secret ballot.

2020

*March 7: Former

Vaughan Vaughan ( ) (2022 population 344,412) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increa ...

MPP and cabinet minister

is elected leader of the

. *October 5: MPP's vote unanimously in favour of a motion introduced by Scarborough—Guildwood MPP

Mitzie Hunter Mitzie Jacquelin Hunter (born September 14, 1971) is a Canadian politician who represented Scarborough—Guildwood as a member of provincial parliament in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2013 to 2023. A member of the Ontario Liberal P ...

stating that the government will not call an election prior to the fixed election date in 2022.

2021

* November 8: Randy Hillier announces that he will run under the banner of the

People's Party of Canada The People's Party of Canada (PPC; ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party was formed by Maxime Bernier in September 2018, shortly after his resignation from the Conservative Party of Canada. It is placed from the right to the far ...

's proposed Ontario wing, the Ontario First Party. He later announced that he would not seek re-election. *December 14: Former Member of Parliament for Hastings—Lennox and Addington,

Derek Sloan Derek Nathaniel Sloan (born November 11, 1984) is a Canadian politician who represented the riding of Hastings—Lennox and Addington from 2019 to 2021. Shortly after being elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal ...

, announces that he will lead the

in the upcoming election.

2022

* May 3: Writs of the election were drawn up, dissolving the Legislature and officially starting the campaign. * May 10: First leaders' debate, organized by Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities. * May 16: Second leaders' debate, organized by Broadcast Consortium. * June 2: Election day.

Campaign period

Contests

Incumbents not standing for reelection

26 MPPs chose not to campaign in the election:

Party slogans

Debates

Issues

Summary

The 2022 Ontario Budget, entitled Ontario's Plan to Build, served as the platform of the governing PC Party. The main five themes it emphasized were: growing the clean energy economy with minerals from the Ring of Fire, building infrastructure including Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass and expanding GO service, supporting workers by funding more skilled trades programs, raising the minimum hourly wage to $15 and allowing universities to issue three-year degrees, lowering taxes by eliminating license plate stickers, eliminating tolls and reducing housing development fees and lastly to avoid future COVID-19 lockdowns by hiring more healthcare workers.. The Official Opposition NDP's campaign focused on increased funding for social programs and government services, which would be paid for through higher taxes on businesses and individuals earning over $200,000 per year. Funding would go toward reducing class sizes, raising welfare payments and disability payments, subsidies for black, indigenous and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, hiring more healthcare and education staff and increased wages for public servants. The NDP also proposed to expand COVID-19 vaccine mandates, implement a mixed member proportional electoral system, to close down all privately owned long-term care facilities and to stop the construction of new highway projects.

Endorsements

Opinion polls

Campaign polls

Polling During 2022 Ontario election campaign

Pre-campaign polls

Ontario 2022 election pre-campaign polling

Notes

Results

Despite only posting a marginal increase in the popular vote, the Progressive Conservative Party won with an increased parliamentary majority. PC gains came primarily at the expense of the

, who lost significant vote share primarily to the

. Nevertheless, the NDP maintained their role as

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

by a large margin. Although she won her seat, Andrea Horwath resigned as leader of the NDP. Despite edging out the NDP for second place in the popular vote, the Liberals only gained one seat and failed to regain

. After failing to win in his own riding, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca also announced his resignation as party leader. The only two candidates outside the three largest parties to be elected were Green Party leader Mike Schreiner and independent candidate Bobbi Ann Brady, who prior to the election was the executive assistant to the retiring PC MPP in her riding. The official results, certified by

Elections Ontario Elections Ontario () is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario responsible for the administration of provincial elections and referendums. It is charged with the implementation and enforcement of the ''Election Act'' ( R.S.O ...

, are as follows:

Synopsis of results

: = open seat : = turnout is above provincial average : = incumbent re-elected under the same party banner : = incumbent switched allegiance after 2018 election : = other incumbents renominated

Comparative analysis for ridings (2022 vs 2018)

Post-election pendulum

The robustness of the margins of victory for each party can be summarized in electoral pendulums. These are not necessarily a measure of the volatility of the respective riding results. The following tables show the margins over the various 2nd-place contenders, for which one-half of the value represents the swing needed to overturn the result. Actual seat turnovers in the 2022 election are noted for reference. : = seats that turned over in the election

Results summary by region

Detailed results

Summarized from , - ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 , Political party ! rowspan=2 , Party leader ! colspan=5 , MPPs ! colspan=4 , Votes , - ! Candidates !

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

! Dissol. !2022 !± !# !#± !% ! ± (pp) , style="text-align:left;",

, 124 , 76 , 67 , 83 , 7 , 1,919,905 , 406,618 , 40.83% , 0.64 , style="text-align:left;",

, 121 , 7 , 7 , 8 , 1 , 1,124,065 , 281 , 23.91% , 4.49 , style="text-align:left;",

, 124 , 40 , 38 , 31 , 9 , 1,116,383 , 813,583 , 23.74% , 9.60 , style="text-align:left;",

, 124 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 280,006 , 15,487 , 5.96% , 1.39 , colspan="2" style="text-align:left;", Independents and no affiliation , 40 , – , 6 , 1 , 1 , 25,332 , 17,106 , 0.54% , 0.40 , style="text-align:left;", Jim Karahalios , 123 , , 1 , – , – , 127,462 , , 2.71% , , style="text-align:left;",

, 105 , – , 1 , – , – , 83,618 , 81,302 , 1.78% , 1.74 , style="text-align:left;", Greg Vezina , 28 , – , – , – , – , 6,202 , 9,944 , 0.13% , 0.15 , style="text-align:left;", Mark Snow , 16 , – , – , – , – , 5,242 , 37,580 , 0.11% , 0.63 , style="text-align:left;", Jim Torma , 13 , , – , – , – , 2,638 , , 0.06% , , style="text-align:left;", Paul McKeever , 11 , – , – , – , – , 2,103 , 462 , 0.04% , – , style="text-align:left;", Drew Garvie , 12 , – , – , – , – , 2,100 , 629 , 0.04% , 0.01 , style="text-align:left;", Brad Harness , 11 , – , – , – , – , 1,651 , 1,031 , 0.04% , 0.01 , style="text-align:left;", Yuri Duboisky , 17 , – , – , – , – , 1,618 , 581 , 0.03% , 0.01 , style="text-align:left;", Bahman Yazdanfar , 2 , – , – , – , – , 568 , 671 , 0.01% , 0.01 , style="text-align:left;", Murray Reid , 3 , – , – , – , – , 414 , 28 , 0.01% , – , style="text-align:left;", Troy Young , 3 , – , – , – , – , 409 , 219 , 0.01% , – , style="text-align:left;", Raymond Samuels , 3 , , – , – , – , 367 , , 0.01% , , style="text-align:left;", Queenie Yu , 3 , – , – , – , – , 340 , 738 , 0.01% , 0.01 , style="text-align:left;", Mansoor Qureshi , 2 , , – , – , – , 295 , , 0.01% , , style="text-align:left;", Lionel Poizner , 2 , – , – , – , – , 290 , 341 , 0.01% , – , style="text-align:left;", Trevor Holliday , 2 , – , – , – , – , 283 , 5,629 , 0.01% , 0.09 , style="text-align:left;", Kathleen Ann Sayer , 2 , , – , – , – , 196 , , – , , style="text-align:left;", Peter House , 2 , , – , – , – , 182 , , – , , style="text-align:left;", Lilya Eklishaeva , 2 , , – , – , – , 182 , , – , , style="text-align:left;", Joshua E. Eriksen , 2 , – , – , – , – , 108 , 694 , – , 0.01 , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4", Vacant , 3 , colspan="6", , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;", Total , 897 !colspan="4" , 124 , 4,701,959 , 1,042,901 !colspan="2" , 100.00% , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Rejected, unmarked and declined ballots , 30,517 , 30,909 , colspan="2" , , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Turnout , 4,732,476 , 1,073,810 , colspan="2" , , -style="background:#E9E9E9;" , colspan="8" style="text-align:left;", Registered voters / turnout % !colspan="2" , 10,740,426 , 44.06% , 12.61

Summary analysis

Most marginal 2-way and 3-way contests

Significant results among independent and minor party candidates

Those candidates not belonging to a major party, receiving more than 1,000 votes in the election, are listed below:

Seats changing hands

Of the 124 seats, 26 were open because of MPPs who chose not to stand for reelection, and voters in only 14 seats changed allegiance from the previous election in 2018. There were 14 seats that changed allegiance in the election: ; NDP to PC (9) *

Brampton Centre Brampton Centre () is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that is represented in the House of Commons of Canada. This riding was created in 1996 from parts of Brampton (federal electoral district), Bra ...

* Brampton East * Brampton North *

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

* Hamilton East—Stoney Creek * Thunder Bay—Atikokan *

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 at the 2021 Canadian census and an estimated population of ...

* Windsor—Tecumseh * York South—Weston ; NDP to Liberal (2) * Beaches—East York *

Kingston and the Islands Kingston and the Islands could refer to: * Kingston and the Islands (federal electoral district) * Kingston and the Islands (provincial electoral district) {{Disambiguation ...

; Liberal to NDP (1) *

Thunder Bay—Superior North Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...

; PC to NDP (1) * Ottawa West—Nepean ; PC to Independent (1) * Haldimand—Norfolk Of the 14 seats that changed hands, seven were open seats where the MPPs chose to retire, and seven others saw their incumbents defeated. Three PC MPPs had changed allegiance during the course of the past Legislature, but failed to secure reelection under their new banners. The seats reverted to the PCs.

Student Vote results

Student Vote elections are mock elections that run parallel to real elections, in which students not of voting age participate. They are administered by CIVIX Canada, in partnership with Elections Ontario. Student Vote elections are for educational purposes and do not count towards the actual results. ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" , Party ! rowspan="2" , Leader ! colspan="3" , Seats ! colspan="3" , Votes , - ! Elected !

! ± ! # ! % ! Change , - , style="text-align: left;" ,

, 75 , , 68 , , 7 , , 69,709 , , 28.72%, , 3.63 , - , style="text-align: left;" ,

, 28 , , 10 , , 18 , , 53,269 , , 21.95% , , 3.16 , style="text-align: left;" ,

, 17 , , 45 , , 28 , , 55,372 , , 18.69% , , 8.02 , - , style="text-align: left;" ,

, 4 , , 2 , , 2 , , 38,745 , , 15.96% , , 2.99 , - , - , style="text-align:left;" , Jim Karahalios , 0 , , 0 , , 0 , , , 13,563 , , 5.59% , style="text-align: left;" colspan="6" , , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 0 , , 0 , , 0 , , 9,575 , , 3.95% , - , style="text-align: left;" colspan="2" , Others , 0 , , 0 , , 0 , , 12,468 , , 5.14% , , , - , style="text-align: left;" colspan="6" , Valid votes , 230,233 , , , , , - , style="text-align: left;" colspan="6" , Rejected ballots , - , , , , , - , style="text-align: left;" colspan="3" , Total votes cast , 124 , , 124 , , , , 230,233 , , , , , - , colspan="9" style="text-align: left;" , Source:

References

Opinion poll sources

External links

Elections Ontario
{{Ontario elections

General Election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

June 2022 in Canada General elections in Ontario