Voting in French

At the end of the February 2025 provincial election, some Francophones contacted us to inform us about the lack of French language services in the voting process. Most of the cases were about a lack of in-person service in French at polling stations, due to a lack of French-speaking staff and a failure to provide the “active offer” of service in French required under the French Language Services Act.

Result : We raised these issues with Elections Ontario, which told us that the calling of an early, winter election had a significant impact on its planning in general, including French language services, particularly with regard to the recruitment and training of bilingual staff at the polls.

Elections Ontario committed to continuing to improve its planning for exceptional situations such as early elections, including its ability to recruit and train staff who provide services at the polls.