Ontario parties spend summer preparing for possibility of an early election

Ontario's major political parties have been spending the summer nominating candidates, running 'campaign schools,' and canvassing after remarks from the premier this spring fuelled speculation he will call an early election.

Ontario's major political parties have been spending the summer nominating candidates, running "campaign schools," and canvassing after remarks from the premier this spring fuelled speculation he will call an early election.

The province's next fixed election date isn't until June 2026, but Doug Ford set off alarm bells in political circles this past May when he repeatedly refused to commit to that timeline during a news conference, saying only that he wants to make sure he fulfils his agenda and keeps the promises his majority Progressive Conservative government has made.

Liberal co-campaign directors Genevieve Tomney and Chad Walsh – officially named to their positions soon – looked at each other and said, "now it's time to go," Tomney said in an interview.

"We've kind of been treating this as a campaign summer," she said.

"What I would say about campaigns is that I sometimes kind of compare it to an iceberg, where so much of the work that's being done is happening below the surface, but we're gearing up for a pretty big end of summer into the fall."

Some of that below-the-surface work entails putting calls out to potential campaign staff and volunteers. Gone are the majority Liberal government days when the party had a campaign army at the ready – most of them have moved into different roles and into the private sector.

"Pulling all of those people back together again is kind of like a huge volunteer-slash-HR effort as well," Tomney said.