After a short election campaign period, on February 27, 2025, Ontario voters re-elected the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party to a third majority in the Ontario legislature. Precedent and tradition suggest that Lt. Governor Edith Dumont will ask Doug Ford to continue as Premier of Ontario and form another Government. The New Democratic Party (NDP) will continue to serve as the official opposition.
The Ontario Liberal Party regains official party status by securing 14 seats in the legislature. This means that they will have more resources at their disposal to hire staff, conduct research, and support communications — ultimately allowing them to be a more effective political party. The Green Party of Ontario return to the legislature with the two seats they held previously.
2025 Results
The results for the 2025 Provincial election are as follows:
| Party | 2025 Seat Count | 2022 Seat Count | 2025 Popular Vote | 2022 Popular Vote |
| PC | 80 | 83 | 42.97% | 40.8% |
| NDP | 27 | 31 | 18.55% | 23.7% |
| Liberal | 14 | 8 | 29.95% | 23.8% |
| Green | 2 | 1 | 4.83% | 6.0% |
| Other | 1 | 1 | 1.08% | 0.5% |
| Overall voter turnout | 45% (up from 43%) | |||
While PC, NDP, and Green Party leaders were elected in their ridings, Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie was unable to secure a seat.
Municipal Interests
There were several current and former municipal council members who ran provincially as well as one current municipal staffer:
- Town of Thessalon mayor, Bill Rosenberg, who flipped the Algoma-Manitoulin seat from NDP to PC.
- Town of Halton Hills councillor, Joseph Racinsky, who won for the PCs in Wellington (formerly held by Ted Arnott).
- Former City of Ottawa councillor, and senior city administrator, Catherine McKenney kept the Ottawa Centre riding for the NDP.
- City of Ottawa councillor, George Darouze, retained the Carleton seat for the PCs.
- Town of Arnprior councillor, Billy Denault, won for the PCs in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke (formerly held by John Yakabuski).
- City of Hamilton’s former director of licensing and bylaw enforcement, Monica Cirello, won Hamilton Mountain for the PCs.
What's Next
According to some media reports, the legislature may resume on March 3, however, as of the release of this update, the legislature site has not yet been updated. Whenever it does return, we can expect the PC Party to begin acting on their new Government mandate. The new parliament will begin with a new Speech from the Throne outlining the Government’s priorities. Based on commitments made during the campaign period, these could include:
- Measures to protect Ontario residents, businesses, municipalities and the overall economy from US tariffs
- Infrastructure spending including building a tunnel for the 401
- Investments to connect Ontarians with a family doctor and primary care
- Legislation to ban the use of congestion pricing on all provincial and municipal roadways
- Permanently cutting the provincial gas tax by 5.7 cents per litre and diesel by 5.3 cents
- Reintroducing legislation to provide municipalities with tools to manage encampments
As an Association, we look forward to working with the Ford Government in their new mandate and we will continue to advocate on behalf of members and municipal staff for Functional Foundations that focus on building frameworks to support effective policy-making, efficient and sustainable resident and community service delivery.
This includes advocating for:
- A social and economic prosperity review
- Legislative updates to modernize the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA), Municipal Act (MA), and Municipal Elections Act (MEA)
- Updated accountability and transparency frameworks that protect municipal staff
- The removal of strong mayor authority over the role of the chief administrative officer and municipal staff
Our 2025 provincial election priorities focus on establishing a better overall municipal-provincial working relationship to collaborate and co-design effective policies and service delivery solutions for Ontario communities. It is our hope that the new Government will appropriately consult with us and other municipal associations on those issues that directly or indirectly affect our members and the broader municipal sector.
For more information or questions, please contact our advocacy team.