Site MenuForeword – Report on the 2020 By-elections
This report discusses the conduct of the two by-elections held on October 26, 2020, in the electoral districts of Toronto Centre and York Centre in the province of Ontario.
Under the Canada Elections Act, if one or more by-elections are held in a year, the Chief Electoral Officer must, within 90 days after the end of the year, produce a report that sets out "any matter or event that has arisen or occurred in connection with the administration of the Chief Electoral Officer's office since the last report and that he or she considers should be brought to the attention of the House of Commons."
The fall 2020 by-elections were the first federal elections held since the general election in October 2019. They were also the first to be conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic and, furthermore, in an evolving setting: the Toronto and York regions moved from the "yellow" to the "red" zone designation during the course of the election calendar.
Conducting these two by-elections during the pandemic, in two of the most densely populated electoral districts in Canada, provided the agency with an opportunity to test its adaptive pandemic measures prior to a national-scale election, should one be called before the pandemic is over.
As part of our ongoing readiness planning, Elections Canada consulted stakeholders on their views about the adapted electoral services to be offered if an election were to be called during the pandemic. We factored the results from these consultations into our decision- making for the by-elections, and we continue to take them into account as we adapt our operational approach for any future electoral events held in the pandemic context. The adapted service offerings for the by-elections were also informed by lessons learned and strategies from the general elections held in three provinces in fall 2020.
Common to all elections held in Canada in 2020 was the implementation of health and safety measures to align with the guidance of public health authorities. For the two by-elections delivered by Elections Canada, these measures included an entry registry in case local public health authorities required information for contact tracing, capacity limits inside polling locations, personal protective equipment, physical distancing measures, hand sanitizing stations at entrances and exits, and non-medical masks. At each polling station, there was a single poll worker wearing a non-medical mask and face shield, and electors were provided with a single-use pencil to mark their ballot. We also adapted our training model for poll workers, including reduced class sizes, and promoted electronic transactions for candidates and political parties. All these measures were supported by communications to the public.
Conducting by-elections during a pandemic showed that more time and space are required to safely deliver election services. Recruitment and securing appropriate polling places also presented clear challenges, highlighting the need to give additional consideration to these two key areas ahead of a potential upcoming general election.
During the 2020 by-elections, many individuals did not show up at training sessions. The two returning officers managed recruitment challenges by recruiting from neighbouring electoral districts. For obvious reasons, this would be a much less viable solution in a general election.
As for polling places, owing to pandemic-related health and safety concerns, restrictions and protocols, returning officers were not able to rely to the same extent on the usual facilities such as schools, churches, apartment buildings, seniors' residences, community centres and YMCAs. Therefore, we secured new locations not normally considered—and in many cases not usually available to us—such as conference centres and hotel ballrooms. Should a general election occur during the pandemic, Canadians must expect more atypical voting locations, sometimes farther away from home and perhaps less accessible.
That being said, Elections Canada has made administrative changes to deliver a safe election under the current legislation and, should a general election be called during the pandemic, will deliver those changes that are operationally ready at the time of the issue of the writs. These include measures such as the single poll worker model, physical distancing at polling places, protective equipment for poll workers, adapting the way we offer services in long-term care facilities, and increasing the capacity and convenience of the vote-by-mail system to meet a potential increase in demand for this service.
For candidates, we will continue to offer the option of having their solemn declaration administered by videoconference, as we did for the by-elections. We will maintain the fact sheet on the Elections Canada website outlining public health best practices for canvassing door-to-door and in public spaces. This fact sheet was developed in collaboration with Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
By working to ensure the safety of its staff and of electors and candidates, and by implementing physical distancing and other public health guidelines at polling places and at Elections Canada offices, we successfully delivered two safe and secure by-elections.
In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank the election workers, returning officers, field liaison officers and staff at Elections Canada headquarters who worked to ensure that their fellow Canadians could exercise their democratic rights to vote or run for office in these two by-elections.
Stéphane Perrault
Chief Electoral Officer of Canada