Ontario political parties scramble to prepare ahead of possible early election

With rumours of an early Ontario election swirling at Queen's Park, all of the major parties are racing to nominate a full slate of 124 candidates to contest every riding in the province.

Doug Ford appears to be ramping up his rhetoric around the need for an early vote nearly a year and a half ahead of the province's next fixed election in June 2026. The premier has refused to rule out an early election and stressed this week that if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, he will need a new mandate to help Ontario workers and businesses. 

"We're looking at spending tens of billions of dollars right now," he said. "It's going to be our province that's going to be affected more than any other jurisdiction in the country.

"We're the ones with the target on our back."

Despite the uncertainty surrounding a possible election, all of the parties are kicking preparations into high gear with a key focus on getting their candidates in place. 

Ontario's Progressive Conservatives began nominating candidates last September, but the pace of those nominations has quickened over the past few months, with the party now having nominated 74 people. The Liberal Party says it has nominated, or is in the process of nominating, 50 candidates. The Green Party says it has nominated 45 candidates and the New Democrats say they have 31 candidates in place.

"I definitely think that there's a foot on the gas," said Mélanie Richer, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategies and former communications director for federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

Richer said Ford's comments this week about a possible early vote have further solidified the push all parties are making right. It takes time to search for candidates, run races where required and hold votes or meetings — even if it's just to acclaim a single candidate.  

"Bells are ringing that we may be going faster," she said. "You have to find folks. You have to accelerate those processes."

And that's no simple task, said former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister John Milloy, who is now the director of the Centre for Public Ethics at Martin Luther University College. Parties must also spend time vetting candidates, and the rush now just increases the margin of error for all of the parties.

"I think we're also going to see situations in all three parties where we're going to have candidates (who) we're going to find out they have skeletons in their closets," he said. "And it's a distraction for the campaign."

Conservative strategist Dan Mader, a founder of Loyalist Strategies, said it's difficult to guard against vetting errors with such short potential timelines ahead of a snap election.

"The quicker you put something together, the fewer people you have who have a chance to take a look at it and vet it, the more likely you are to make a mistake," he said.

Mader, who has worked on policy development for the federal Conservatives, says the parties are also rushing to re-draft their campaign strategies based on the emergence of Trump's tariff threats. The campaign all of the parties anticipated last year, has taken a dramatic turn since the U.S. election in November, he said.