Ontario Unity Candidates - Cooperate for Canada

Why is Cooperation Necessary?

The people of Ontario are facing multiple crises. Ontario needs to reverse two trends that enable the PCs to win: Low Voter Turnout and Vote Splitting. Doug Ford’s call at the end of January for the snap election on February 27, 2025 in the middle of a cold winter is absolutely unnecessary. Doug Ford is counting on a low voter turnout. In 2022 the low voter turnout worked in Ford’s favour. His ‘majority’ was achieved with the support of only 17.9% of eligible Ontario voters. In many ridings progressive voters stayed home, and progressives that did vote were split between three parties – NDP, Liberal and Green. The first-past-the-post voting system results in vote splitting between the NDP, Liberal and Green Candidates, and this enables Doug Ford and the PCs to win seats. We are working to boost voter turnout and to urge electoral cooperation – including strategic voting.

Stop vote splitting amongst the centre-left parties.

Why is this important? Ontario simply cannot afford another term with a Doug Ford majority. His record since he was first elected in 2018 is terrible. Under Doug Ford PC majority government Ontario has suffered severe underfunding of publicly funded healthcare and education. The Ford government has a bad habit of making secret deals to sell off public assets to private interests – there is an ongoing RCMP investigation! Ford’s policy changes to increase housing have failed miserably. And they plan to spending billions on unnecessary highways and Ford’s mysterious plan to fight a trade war with the US. Doug Ford is undermining our democracy – he uses MZOs and invokes the Notwithstanding Clause to force through his plans. This election is an ‘All Hands On Deck’ emergency that requires an emergency level response.

Cooperation is necessary to deny Doug Ford a PC majority

Kathleen O’Hara, a member of Cooperate for Canada makes a very clear case for cooperation in her excellent article in The Rabble: Electoral Cooperation means Defending Your Interests

Support Unity Candidates

Make a difference in the 2025 Ontario election: Cast your vote for the Unity Candidate

The Unity Candidate is the progressive, centre-left Candidate who has the best chance of winning in a Riding.

Sarah Harmer has posted a video to voice support for Cooperate for Canada and the Unity Candidate in her Riding.

Vote – Donate – Volunteer – Spread the Word

Vote: It is critical for progressive voters to go out and vote. Please visit the Elections Ontario site to find voting dates, locations and times. Many voters have not yet received Voter Information Cards.

You do not need a Voter Information Card to vote.

Bring ID that has both your name and address with you. Elections Ontario has a list of acceptable forms of ID.

Amplify: Have conversations. Send emails. Share on social media. Encourage people in your network to go out and vote for the Unity Candidate in their Riding. We highly recommend finding a group of friends and going to vote together. Do you know people who might find it difficult to get to the voting location? Offer to give them a ride. Every single vote is important.

Make an even bigger impact – more ways to cooperate! Support the Unity Candidate’s campaign in your Riding. Donate your time and/or financially – whatever is possible for you. Remember that $200 cheque from Ford? If you donate a portion or all of it to the Unity Candidate’s campaign, this can make a huge impact on their ability to connect with more voters. At the same time you will qualify for a tax deduction that will cover a significant portion of the donation. As we approach the election it is most helpful to donate your time if that is possible. Contact the Candidate through their website to volunteer. For example one task you can help the Unity Candidate with is making phone calls to get people out to vote – a task you can perform from home.

What if you live in a safe Riding where there is no Unity Candidate identified? We encourage you to vote for the progressive Candidate that best aligns with your values. If there is no Unity Candidate identified, it could be the progressive Candidate in your Riding is considered ‘Safe’, or it could be that full cooperation between the NDP, LPO and GPO is unlikely to be effective to defeat the PC Candidate. We encourage you to check the polling analysis on 338Canada for your Riding (click on your Riding in their list of Ontario Ridings) to learn more about the status of your Riding. You can cooperate too! We urge you to support the Unity Candidate campaign of your choice from the list below. You do not need to live in the Riding to support a Candidate.

Sign and Share our Voting Pledge: Your support for cooperation helps us build momentum. Our efforts will continue after the Ontario campaign to urge cooperation in the federal election campaign.

The List: Unity Candidates

We recommend you continue to check this page, and make certain you reload/refresh the page to obtain the most current information.

Below is the list of Unity Candidates we endorse for the Ontario Provincial Election on February 27, 2025 to guide strategic voting and cooperation, organized by Region. We have identified Unity Candidates for vulnerable Ridings where there are opportunities to ‘flip seats’ away from the PCs, and for Ridings where it is important to protect seats where a Unity Candidate is the incumbent.

If you do not find your Riding in this list we encourage you to vote for the progressive Candidate that best aligns with your values. If there is no Unity Candidate identified, it could be the progressive Candidate in your Riding is considered ‘Safe’, or it could be that full cooperation between the NDP, LPO and GPO is unlikely to be effective to defeat the PC Candidate. We encourage you to check the current polling analysis for your Riding. (Click on your Riding in the 338 Canada list of Ontario Ridings to learn more about the status of your Riding.) You are still able to participate in cooperation – please see the Support Unity Candidates section above.

The results of the election are determined by votes – not polling. We urge everyone to exercise their right to vote.

Candidate Ratings: Likely to Defeat the PC, Must Defend from the PC, Possible to Defeat the PC, Difficult to Defeat the PC

If you are viewing using a phone, it’s best viewed with your phone turned horizontally.

Ottawa

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Kanata-Carleton	Karen McCrimmon	Liberal	Must Defend	Liberal
Nepean	Tyler Watt	LIberal	Likely to Defeat	PC
Orleans	Stephen Blais	Liberal	Must Defend – Watch Closely	Liberal
Ottawa Centre	Catherine McKenney	NDP	Must Defend – new candidate	NDP
Ottawa West-Nepean	Chandra Pasma	NDP	Must Defend	NDP

Belleville to Brockville (B2B)

Kudos to our B2B Chapter for this press coverage of their efforts! https://pictongazette.ca/post/unite-the-left

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Glengarry-Prescott-Russell	Trevor Stewart	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC
Kingston and the Islands	Ted Hsu	Liberal	Must Defend	Liberal
Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston	Rob Rainer	Liberal	Difficult to Defeat	PC

GTA – Greater Toronto Area

Do you live in Toronto? Check Not One Seat for the list of Unity Candidates they have selected for City of Toronto Ridings.

GTA – East

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Ajax	Rob Cerjanec	Liberal	Likely to Defeat	PC
Oshawa	Jennifer French	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Pickering-Uxbridge	Ibrahim Daniya	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC

GTA – North

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Markham-Stouffville	Kelly Dunn	Liberal	Difficult to Defeat	PC
Markham-Thornhill	Nirmala Armstrong	Liberal	Difficult to Defeat	PC
Newmarket-Aurora	Chris Ballard	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC

GTA – Brampton

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Brampton Centre	Martin Medeiros	Liberal	Watch Closely Possible to Defeat – Liberal/NDP very close	PC
Brampton East	Martin Singh	NDP	Watch Closely Possible to Defeat – Liberal/NDP extremely close	PC
Brampton North	Ranjit Singh Bagga	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC

GTA – Mississauga

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Mississauga Centre	Sumira Malik	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC
Mississauga East – Cooksville	Bonnie Crombie	Liberal	Likely to Defeat	Independent
Mississauga-Erin Mills	Qasir Dar	Liberal	Likely to Defeat	PC
Mississauga-Lakeshore	Elizabth Mendes	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC
Mississauga-Malton	Jawad Haroon	Liberal	Likely to Defeat	PC
Mississauga-Streetsville	Jill Promoli	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC

GTA – West

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Burlington	Andrea Grebenc	Liberal	Likely to Defeat	PC
Milton	Kristina Tesser Derksen	Liberal	Difficult to Defeat	PC
Oakville	Alison Gohel	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC
Oakville North-Burlington	Kaniz Mouli	Liberal	Difficult to Defeat	PC
Wellington-Halton Hills	Bronwynn Wilton	Green	Difficult to Defeat	PC

Central Ontario

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte	Rose Zacharias	Liberal	Likely to Defeat	PC
Parry Sound-Muskoka	Matt Richter	Green	Likely to Defeat	PC
Peterborough-Kawartha	Adam Hopkins	Liberal	Likely to Defeat	PC

Hamilton Niagara

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Hamilton Centre	Sarah Jama	Independent	Must Defend Watch Closely -NDP did not allow Sarah Jama to be their candidate, running as IND	Independent
Hamilton East-Stoney Creek	Heino Doessing	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC
Hamilton Mountain	Kojo Damptey	NDP	Must Defend – new candidate	NDP
Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas	Sandy Shaw	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Niagara Centre	Jeff Burch	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Niagara Falls	Wayne Gates	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
St. Catharines	Jennie Stevens	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Flamborough-Glanbrook	Joshua Bell	Liberal	Difficult to Defeat Seeing ground support for new NDP candidate Lilly Noble	PC

Grand River Watershed

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Brantford-Brant	Harvey Bischof	NDP	Difficult to Defeat – NDP/Liberal vote splitting risks PC win	PC
Cambridge	Rob Deutschmann	Liberal	Possible to Defeat	PC
Haldimand-Norfolk	Bobbi Ann Brady	Independent	Must Defend	Independent
Kitchener-Centre	Aislinn Clancy	Green	Must Defend	Green
Kitchener-Conestoga	Jodi Szimanski	NDP	Difficult to Defeat – NDP/Liberal Close – vote splitting risks PC win	PC
Kitchener South-Hespeler	Jeff Donkersgoed	NDP	Difficult to Defeat – NDP/Liberal Close – vote splitting risks PC win	PC
Waterloo	Catherine Fife	NDP	Must Defend	NDP

Southwest Ontario

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
London-Fanshawe	Teresa Armstrong	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
London North Centre	Terence Kernaghan	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
London West	Peggy Sattler	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Windsor West	Lisa Gretzky	NDP	Must Defend	NDP

Northeast Ontario

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Algoma-Manitoulin	David Timeriski	NDP	Likely to Defeat
Nickel Belt	France Gélinas	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Sudbury	Jamie West	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Timiskaming-Cochrane	John Vanthof	NDP	Must Defend – Watch Closely	NDP

Northwest Ontario

Riding	Unity Candidate	Party	Rating	Incumbent
Kiiwetinoong	Sol Mamakwa	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Mushkegowuk-James Bay	Guy Bourgouin	NDP	Must Defend	NDP
Thunder Bay- Atikokan	Stephen Margarit	Liberal	Possible to Defeat – Liberal/NDP split risks PC win	PC
Thunder Bay-Superior North	Lise Vaugeois	NDP	Must Defend Close Liberal/NDP – vote splitting risks PC win	NDP

How Do We Select the Unity Candidates?

For each vulnerable Riding – where cooperation looks possible – our members have done analysis, and we have identified a Unity Candidate – NDP, Liberal or Green – who has the best chance to win, based on a number of criteria:

Analysis of Polling Data (we use the aggregated polling analysis of 338Canada.com)
Incumbent history
Voting history of the Riding
Interviews with Candidates

The choice of the Unity Candidate can be complicated. Because the chance of success of cooperation varies, we have ranked our list of Unity Candidates. There are important reasons that we do not rely on polling data alone. Some Candidates have a run previously and have a strong presence established in the community and polling data provides clear evidence to support the choice for the Unity Candidate. In other cases there is a very tight race between well qualified Candidates. A first-time Candidate who may not be very well known, but has tremendous community connections and running a great campaign may not show strong support in polling data at the beginning of a campaign. Similar to the approach used by the Not One Seat campaign in Toronto, in as many Ridings as possible our volunteers are interviewing the Candidates. While this presents us with a significant challenge given the short timelines of this election campaign, the interviews enable us to consider additional factors such as campaign strength, connection with the community, experience and willingness to work across Party lines. This extra insight is not available from Polling Analysis. For this reason, our recommendations may differ from other strategic voting recommendations based on polling.