Leadnow and Provincial Elections

On January 29, 2025, Doug Ford called a provincial election in Ontario. As an organization that has resisted harmful Conservative governments across the country for over 10 years, many Leadnow supporters have understandably asked if Leadnow will be running a campaign to influence the outcome of the 2025 Ontario election. 

The short answer is no. And we’re not planning to run provincial election campaigns in other provinces in the near future either. But we wanted to give you a longer answer as to why.

Diminishing Returns 

By far the most impactful election campaign Leadnow has ever run was our first – the 2015 Vote Together campaign. Over the course of a year and a half, 5,626 Leadnow volunteers campaigned in 29 swing ridings to defeat Conservative candidates. In at least one riding, polling found that Leadnow was decisive in defeating a Conservative MP, and we had a high-profile presence in many others.

By contrast, in the 2021 federal election – a snap election with very little time to prepare – our campaign was just weeks long, we struggled to get the attention of the media or candidates, and we had a small fraction of the volunteers. 

It is no surprise that there is a relationship between how many resources we put in and how much impact we can have. But, even a lower-impact federal election campaign is incredibly resource-intensive. 

Our hard-working operations staff – the unsung heroes of any campaign – put in countless hours to ensure we are compliant with election and fundraising laws. Managing the data for a voter contact campaign takes up dozens of hours before a single phone call is made. And identifying strategic ridings, vetting candidates for endorsement, and creating a campaign brand and key policy asks all takes weeks (if done extra speedily) — but more often months. All that is needed before any actual public-facing actions are possible.

The result is that our less well-resourced election campaigns of the past 10 years have used more time and energy getting all the foundations ready than actually carrying out the actions on the streets and online

Finding Focus

In 2023 and 2024, the Leadnow staff and Board of Directors engaged in strategic planning processes that, among other decisions, led to a renewed focus on nationwide campaigns over regional ones. The main motivation was to ensure we were focused enough on a more limited array of campaign issues to be able to have a higher chance of impact and success.

We still run some campaigns on regional or provincial issues, however, the bulk of our work as a national organization is focused on how we can influence the federal government to build a society with rights to justice, dignity and a healthy environment.

This includes the difficult decision to not engage in provincial election campaigns for the time being. As we write this blog post we are busy preparing to launch our federal election campaign, to confront the threat the far-right Poilievre Conservatives pose. 

While the federal election will likely happen earlier than we’d hoped, we’ve been preparing for the past six months and will be ready with a much stronger and more impactful campaign plan thanks to our decision to focus on federal politics.

One day, we may have the resources to be able to engage in provincial elections in one way or another. But for now, we are excited to stay connected with our provincial allies, organizations and friends that are also fighting for the good fight and support and amplify their work where we can (and election compliance laws allow). We know that one organization can’t do it all, but everyone doing what they can is what will build a better world for our communities. 

On February 13, Leadnow is launching our federal election campaign! Join us for How We Fight Back — Federal Election Campaign Launch, where we’ll share a plan for how to fight back against the far right in the next federal election – and how you can plug in.