Ontario Election 2022

Nonprofits, let’s advocate!

The Ontario Election is taking place on June 2, 2022. 

The election period is an opportunity for nonprofits to connect with residents and work together on shared issues and opportunities for collective community impact. This is also a chance for the sector to share the profound impact of nonprofits and charities on our communities and the issues we as a sector are working on across Ontario.

Nonprofits play a vital role in fostering an inclusive democracy. As the bridge between our communities and government, nonprofits engage and amplify community voices, provide unique public policy insight, and hold governments and decision-makers accountable. 

Effective election advocacy does not follow a one-size-fits-all formula.

ONN encourages nonprofits to engage in election advocacy work, share the impact you are having, and talk about the issues your nonprofit and community care about, before, during and after the election. Let’s not be humble!

ONN’s Ontario Election Asks:

Communities must be front-and-centre in the upcoming provincial election. It is vital that all parties focus on ensuring the nonprofit sector thrives, so organizations can continue to feed, shelter, heal, inspire, educate and nurture communities across Ontario. 

This election, ONN is calling on all political party leaders to:

1. Support nonprofit workers and volunteers now, and invest in a resilient workforce for the future.
2. Take profit out of care by phasing out for-profit owners/operators in Ontario’s care systems, and creating an environment to expand nonprofit and public care.
3. Support inclusive local economies through community benefit agreements and by creating an enabling environment for social enterprises and co-operatives.
4. Create a “Home in Government” for the nonprofit sector.

A more detailed document with our election asks and solutions is available for download.

Download ONN’s Election Priorities

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ONN’s Party Platform Analysis

The four major parties of Ontario have released their respective platforms to the public for review. In ONN’s 2022 platform analysis, we’ve broken down each party’s policies into sixteen sub sectors from housing and income-security to climate change and anti-racism. We have also analyzed these platforms to see how well they align with our election asks as well as our policy priorities. 

The NDP, Liberals, and Greens have all promised to raise the minimum wage to $16 an hour, along with other big promises like phasing out for-profit care, repealing Bill 124, and legislating 10 paid sick days for all. We’ve also seen promises from all four major parties to raise Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates and build more long-term care beds. All of these policies could be game-changers for the sector to have stronger policy and investments for our work in communities over the next four years.

But there is still work to be done. Organizations across the sector are calling for multi-year core funding, and investment in a sector-wide labour force strategy. A home in government would greatly help to break down silos with the 16+ ministries we engage. 

Our full analysis is available for download below.

Read ONN’s Party Platform Analysis

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Election Podcast Mini-Series:

Episode 0 –  Ontario Election 2022: Nonprofits and collective advocacy

This first episode of our election mini-series gives a sneak peek of fascinating stories of how nonprofits are getting innovative as they work together to get the attention of parties and candidates on critical community issues and solutions for Ontarians.

Host: Sarah Matsushita, Director of Communications at ONN

For election-related podcast episodes, please visit the Simplecast website.

Election advocacy resources:

Blogs related to advocacy: