Ontario provincial elections, February 2025

Winter Weather  

In mid-February 2025, Ontario was hit by one of its strongest snowstorms in years, with snowfall totals reaching 30 to 50 cm across Central and Eastern regions including Toronto, Ottawa and Kingston (Perry 2025). Widespread blizzard conditions were reported as wind gusts reached 50 to 70 km/h (Perry 2025).  

Three major storms struck within days of each other, causing disruptions. Bitter cold followed, with temperatures dropping as low as -16 degrees in Toronto (Casaletto 2025). By late February, a sudden warm spell of above-zero temperatures brought thawing conditions and risk of flooding, ice jams and water damage across Southern Ontario (CBC 2025a; Alhmidi 2025).  

The severe storm and subsequent thaw caused over $260 million in insured damages in the province, with impacts including roof collapses, water infiltration and the partial collapse of a six-storey car park in Ottawa. More than 600 collisions were reported on Ontario’s roads (IBC/BAC 2025). Climate scientists note that warming Great Lakes may be intensifying such winter storms, suggesting a link between climate change and Ontario’s increasingly severe snow events (Canadian Press 2025).  
  

Impact on the electoral process   

For the first time in four decades, Premier and PC Party Leader Doug Ford called for snap elections in the province, to be held on 27 February 2025 (Talbot 2025).  
Because the short campaign reduced the usual advance-voting window, advance polls were offered on only three days (20–22 February) rather than the typical ten (Callan 2025). Local campaigns reported operational impacts from the weather: door-to-door canvassing was constrained by cold conditions and different methods were needed to install signs given frozen ground and presence of snowbanks (Freeman 2025).  
 

The decision to conduct the elections in such weather conditions raised concerns among disability advocates, who pointed out the accessibility barriers posed by tall mounds of snow and uncleared sidewalks and urged priority clearing around polling locations (CBC 2025b). The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance (AODA Alliance) protested that creating ‘readily foreseeable new disability barriers flies in the face of the goals and spirit of the landmark Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which the Legislature unanimously passed in 2005’ (AODA Alliance 2025). The latter mandates barrier-free public services and sets out a process for developing and enforcing accessibility standards (Ontario 2025), while the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC 2016) imposes a duty to accommodate individuals with disabilities to the point of undue hardship.  

The City of Toronto said it prioritized snow and ice removal around polling stations in advance of the provincial election by engaging municipal crews, winter maintenance contractors and park and recreation staff to clear access routes (CBC News 2025).Elections Ontario said that contingency plans were in place to address potential disruptions from severe weather, ensuring that all eligible voters could cast a ballot through various methods including advance polls, mail-in ballots and home or hospital voting under specific circumstances (Hassan 2025). However, Rabia Khedr, the national director of Disability Without Poverty, warned that mailboxes, likewise, might not be accessible to voters with disabilities in the winter – and having an election official come into one’s home raised privacy concerns (Lim 2025).  

Previously, Ontario’s 2022 general election had recorded the lowest ever turnout in the province (44 per cent) and observers predicted that winter weather could further suppress participation in a February snap election (Hassan 2025). However, early data from Elections Ontario suggested that overall turnout in 2025, while still low, was approximately 45.4 per cent. (Rodrigues 2025). At the same time, preliminary figures showed that early voting over the restricted advance voting period (20–22 February 2025) was down – at 6.14 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, from 9.92 per cent over the ten days provided in 2022 (Elections Ontario 2025).