Oakville, Ont., mayor Rob Burton stood on the floor of a manufacturing plant behind a podium with the blue and white words “protect Ontario” emblazoned across the front.
“Thank you for the chance to express my personal view for whom I believe is best for the community I love, particularly for growth management,” he said on Monday.
Burton went on to endorse Progressive Conservative Party Leader Doug Ford, adding he was “not here on behalf of the municipality, as mayor.”
It’s a familiar formula for the PC campaign, which has seen several mayors from big and medium cities appear alongside Ford and offer him their endorsement.
A flurry of leaders — representing places like Brampton, Barrie, Welland and Windsor — have all introduced Ford at campaign events and offered his party their personal support for a third majority government. The endorsements represent a small fraction of the province’s 400-plus local leaders.
Mayors lending their support to a campaigning party leader is an unusual though not unheard of pattern in Ontario politics.
Former Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua told Global News it was an “unwritten protocol” that sitting politicians tend not to endorse candidates.
“I kinda stayed away from endorsing one party or another because you’re mayor for everyone — you’re the mayor for conservatives, you’re the mayor for NDPers, you’re the mayor for the entire community,” he said.
“It’s a personal choice.”
Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles walks with local NDP candidate Lisa Vezeau-Allen during a campaign stop in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. on Friday Feb. 7, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kenneth Armstrong
The Progressive Conservatives’ commanding early poll lead is something which a University of Toronto professor and a former Toronto mayor both think could also be influencing the influx of endorsements.
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Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus with the University of Toronto’s political science department, said the mayors who might be tempted to endorse other parties could be choosing to stay silent.
“I can see why a lot of mayors who may be sympathetic to the Liberals or the NDP wouldn’t come out with formal endorsements because they’re afraid, ‘Oh this might hurt my municipality in dealing with the provincial government’ if I think the provincial conservatives are going to win,” he told Global News.
John Sewell, who led the City of Toronto as mayor from 1978 to 1980, said the endorsements were “much more dominant now” than when he was in politics.
He agreed that the political winds play a key part in which mayors feel confident verbalizing who they might support.
“I am sure that if I was a mayor, I’d be looking at the polls and I’d think, ‘If this guy’s going to win, it’s probably in my best interests to be on his side,’” he said. “So, I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why the Ford (PC Party) is getting endorsements from mayors.”
Bevilacqua, who was last in office in 2022, disagreed that local leaders would be throwing their weight behind Ford looking for some kind of gain.
“I don’t think that a premier is going to favour you just because you endorsed them,” he said. “He will do things in your community because they’re needed. If people are thinking there’s going to be a bridge that is not needed by the province, they’re kidding themselves.”
Apart from municipal leaders, unions have also been adding endorsements to the race.
The Progressive Conservatives have netted a number of labour groups, particularly in the private sector. The NDP also announced support from the Amalgamated Transit Union International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
The Ontario Greens told Global News they would unveil endorsements next week, while the Liberals failed to reply to questions about campaign endorsements.
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie appears at a campaign event at George Brown College in Toronto, on Tuesday February 11, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Whether the endorsements actually matter is also up for debate.
“I don’t think so,” Sewell said of whether mayoral endorsements carry weight.
“I don’t think most people who are going to vote are uncertain about how they’re going to vote. You go to vote because you know who you want to vote for.”
Wiseman says who is offering the endorsement can make all the difference.
“If you’re endorsed by a major organization and the leader of that organization, that’ll have more impact than if you’re endorsed by someone who sits in a school board in northern Ontario who hardly anybody voted for and whose name is not recognizable,” he said.
Ontario votes on Feb. 27.