Municipal elections in Canada fall within the jurisdiction of the various provinces and territories. Municipal elections usually elect a mayor and municipal council. In much of Canada, elections of directly elected school board trustees occur concurrently; some locations may also elect other bodies, such as Vancouver, which elects its own park board. Some municipalities will also hold referendums or ballot initiatives at the same time, usually relating to spending projects or tax changes.
As of 2024, all ten provinces and two of three territories have four-year terms of office for municipal officeholders and hold the associated elections on a fixed date. In most cases, all elections across a given province or territory are held simultaneously. Calendar dates vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; nine provinces (all except New Brunswick) hold their elections during a six-week span between late September and early November.
Each province has its own nomenclature for municipalities (including terms such as cities, villages, townships, municipal districts and counties), and some have local elections for unincorporated areas which are not technically municipalities. Elections for municipal councils are held either through ward systems or at-large systems, depending on the location. Vancouver is the largest city in Canada to use an at-large system, while most other large cities use wards.
Most councils are non-partisan and elect only independents. However, some municipalities have locally based political parties or election slates. These include Montreal, Quebec City and Longueuil in Quebec, Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey and Richmond in British Columbia and, since 2025, Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta. These local parties 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.
Municipal election chart by province and territory Province or TerritoryOccurrenceDateLast electionNext electionAlbertaExcluding Lloydminster4 years3rd Monday in October20252029British Columbia4 years3rd Saturday in October20222026Manitoba4 years4th Wednesday in October20222026New Brunswick4 years2nd Monday in May 2026 2030Newfoundland and Labrador4 yearslast Tuesday in September20252029Northwest TerritoriesTaxed communities3 years3rd Monday in October20242026Hamlets2 years2nd Monday in December20242026Nova Scotia4 years3rd Saturday in October20242028Nunavut4 years4th Monday in October20232027Ontario4 years4th Monday in October20222026Prince Edward Island4 years1st Monday in November20222026Quebec4 years1st Sunday in November20252029SaskatchewanUrban municipalities,including Alberta portion of Lloydminster4 years2nd Wednesday in October2024 2028 Odd-numbered districts in rural municipalities4 years2nd Wednesday in October20242028Even-numbered districts in rural municipalities4 years2nd Wednesday in October20222026Yukon4 years3rd Thursday in October20242028
Municipal term lengths
Municipal terms of office are established by provincial and territorial legislation and may therefore vary across Canada. Historically, municipal terms of office were often shorter than they are today, with one-, two- and three-year terms being common in many jurisdictions. By the late 1990s, most Canadians lived in a province where they elected their municipal leaders every three years.
From the late 1990s to the mid-2020s, Canadian provinces and territories gradually converged on four-year municipal terms. Nova Scotia adopted four-year municipal terms in 1998, followed by Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and other provinces during the following decade. As late as 2010, Alberta and British Columbia still used three-year municipal terms, while Saskatchewan retained three-year terms for urban municipalities. Ontario moved to four-year terms in 2006, Alberta in 2010, and British Columbia in 2014. In 2023, Yukon enacted legislation extending municipal terms from three to four years, which took effect following the 2024 municipal elections. Following Yukon's reforms, the Northwest Territories remained the principal exception due to its mixed system of local-government election cycles.
See also 2023 Canadian electoral calendar Elections in Canada Municipal government in Canada Provincial elections in Canada
References
External links Public Service Commissions of Canada - Upcoming Elections