Municipal elections in Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Municipal elections in Canada according to the Canadian Constitution are the jurisdiction of the various provinces and territories. Therefore, they occur on different dates, depending on which province they are in. However, usually municipalities in the same province will have their elections on the same day. Unlike most provinces, territories, and the House of Commons, most municipalities have their elections on some sort of a fixed date. Each province has its own nomenclature for municipalities and some have local elections for unincoproated areas which are not technically municipalities. These entities can be called cities, towns, villages, townships, hamlets, parishes and, simply, municipalities, county municipalities, regional county municipalities, municipal districts, regional districts, counties, regional municipalities, specialized municipalities, district municipalities or rural municipalities. Many of these may be used by Statistics Canada as the basis for census divisions or census subdivisions. Municipal elections usually elect a mayor (or reeve) at large, city councillors (or aldermen), and school trustees. Most councils are non-partisan, however some municipalities (such as Montreal, Quebec City, Longueuil, Quebec, Vancouver, Surrey, British Columbia and Victoria, British Columbia) do have local political parties. However, these are very municipal in nature, and are rarely affiliated with any provincial or federal parties.
Voting may be done with paper ballots that are hand-counted, or by various forms of electronic voting.
[edit] Municipal election chart by province and territory
| Province or Territory | Occurrence | Date | Last elections | Next elections |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | 3 years | 3rd Monday in October | 2004 | 2007 |
| British Columbia | 3 years | 3rd Saturday in November | 2005 | 2008 |
| Manitoba | 4 years | 4th Wednesday in October | 2002 | 2006 |
| New Brunswick | 4 years | 2nd Monday in May | 2004 | 2008 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 4 years | last Tuesday in September | 2005 | 2009 |
| Northwest Territories | 2 or 3 years | 3rd Monday in October (taxed communities) 2nd Monday in December (hamlets) |
2006 | - |
| Nova Scotia | 4 years | 3rd Saturday in October | 2004 | 2008 |
| Nunavut | 2 or 3 years | 3rd Monday in October (taxed communities) 2nd Monday in December (hamlets) |
- | - |
| Ontario | 3 years (currently) 4 years (from Nov 2006) |
2nd Monday in November | 2003 | 2006 |
| Prince Edward Island | 4 years | 1st Monday in November | 2006 | 2010 |
| Quebec | 4 years | 1st Sunday in November | 2005 | 2009 |
| Saskatchewan | 2 years (rural) 3 years (urban) |
3rd Wednesday in October (rural) 4th Wednesday in October (urban) |
2003* | 2006* |
| Yukon | 3 years | 3rd Thursday in October | 2003 | 2006 |
*urban municipalities only.
