The race forming right now, and the shapes hiding in twenty years of
certificates. Every figure here is derived from tables already published on this site.
Nothing new is claimed, and each chart names its derivation.
The 2026 field, filing by filing
Every nomination on the City's current list, counted cumulatively from
the day filing opened. The line ends at September 10, 2026 because that is when the list was retrieved — the run-up to the August 21
deadline is precisely the part still being written, and past elections say it is
steep. Withdrawn filings are not counted. Derived from the
current candidate list, which carries each filing's date
and time from the City's record.
Acclamations, election by election
Council seatsSchool board seats
Seats won without a vote in each full general election, by race type. The record of 3 is shared by 2003 and 2022. 2026 has none: every race on the certified ballot of August 24, 2026 has more candidates than seats. Every acclaimed seat on record is on the acclamations page.
The closest results on record
Smallest winning margins, mayor and ward races, 2003–2022
Derivation: winning votes minus runner-up votes in
every mayoral and ward race we hold, smallest eight shown, runner-up named beside the
winner. School-board races are excluded because the French boards' certificates give
Barrie-only vote columns. By-election margins are marked: far fewer people vote in one, so
a small margin there is not comparable with a general election. Full tables:
election results.
Smallest winning margins as a share of the vote, mayor and ward races,
2003–2022
Derivation: the same margins divided by every vote
cast in that race — all candidates, not just the top two — smallest eight shown. This is
a different list from the table above, and that is the point: a handful of votes in a
low-turnout by-election is a proportionally closer result than the same handful city-wide,
which the raw count hides and the share shows. Full tables:
election results.
How does turnout compare across municipal, provincial and federal elections?
Municipal (City of Barrie)Provincial (Barrie ridings)Federal (Barrie ridings)
One point per general election, placed in date order rather than to scale.
Municipal: the City's citywide turnout, published only from 2014 (earlier documents
record votes but not the size of the electorate; see turnout).
The 2006 and 2010 points are not City figures but measure the same thing, the share of
eligible voters who voted for mayor. 2006, 30.4%: as the Barrie Advance reported it.
2010, 41.62%: this site's arithmetic, the 35,020 votes cast in the mayoral race (City
certificate) over the 84,145 eligible voters the Clerk gave on election day (as reported
by the Advance and the Barrie Examiner); the papers themselves said "about 40%". For 2003
the only figure is the Examiner's "approximately 30%", too loose to draw.
Provincial and federal: the official turnout where one riding covered Barrie; where the
city was split between two ridings (federal from 2015, provincial from 2018) the point is
this site's arithmetic, total ballots over total electors across both. The ridings
include parts of Innisfil, Springwater, Oro-Medonte and, before 2004, Bradford, and the
two agencies count ballots and electors slightly differently (explained under the riding table on election results).
Sources:
Official Voting Results, Table 11: Voting results by electoral district, 2000-2025, Elections Canada. Original document. Electors on the lists, total ballots cast (valid plus rejected) and voter turnout for each Barrie riding in each general election 2000 to 2025, one extract per year (research/extracted/elections-canada-<year>-table11-turnout.txt), each naming its own table URL. Valid-ballot totals match the candidate results on this site exactly. Statistical Summary by Electoral District, 2003-2025, Elections Ontario. Original document. Total number of names (registered plus revised), total voter turnout (valid, rejected, unmarked and declined ballots) and turnout per cent for each Barrie riding in each general election 2003 to 2025, one extract per year (research/extracted/elections-ontario-<year>-statistical-summary-turnout.txt). The 2022 figures are from the reissued report dated October 27, 2022. Election numbers pathetic in Barrie, Barrie Advance (John Devine), dated November 29, 2006. Original document. Archived copy. Column, 16 days after the vote: turnout "about 30 per cent"; "Turnout ranged from a high of 40.9 per cent in Ward 10 to a low of 20.6 per cent in Ward 6. Just 30.4 per cent of voters cast a ballot for mayor." Not attributed to the Clerk; no electorate or ballot count. 15,600 vote in advance polls, Barrie Advance (simcoe.com), dated October 25, 2010. Original document. Archived copy. Election day, before polls closed: "Barrie clerk Dawn McAlpine said 15,600 votes were cast in advance polls, of 84,145 eligible voters." The Clerk's electorate figure. Emotions, turnouts run high, The Barrie Examiner (Marg. Bruineman). Original document. Archived copy. Election-week report, published on or before October 27, 2010 (the archived copy has no dateline): "More than 35,000 people of an eligible 84,145 voted, representing about 40%", against "the 30% turnout in each of Barrie's last two elections". The reporter's figures, not attributed to the Clerk. Voting early a good idea: official, The Barrie Examiner (Bob Bruton), dated October 20, 2014. Original document. Archived copy. "In 2010, voter turnout in Barrie it was just a tick above 40% — with approximately 35,000 of 84,145 eligible voters casting ballots. In both the 2006 and 2003 city elections, turnout was approximately 30%." The reporter's figures, not attributed to the Clerk. All retrieved October 8, 2026.
What happens when an incumbent runs again
Won at the ballotAcclaimedLost
Of the eleven council seats (mayor and ten wards), what happened when the
person holding the seat going in ran to keep it. Seats whose holder did not run are
not drawn — this chart is about defending a seat; the turnover chart below counts
every way a seat changes hands. The holder resolves through every event, including
by-elections and the 2017 appointment, via the person registry. A ward number does
not describe identical territory in every year, so a defence across a boundary
change is of the seat number, not the same streets. Derived from the
results archive.
How much of council changes hands
Of the eleven council seats (mayor and ten wards), how many were won by a
different person than held the seat going in — for any reason: retirement, defeat, or
a new face in an open race. The holder going in accounts for mid-term changes (the
2012, 2016 and 2020 by-elections and the 2017 appointment). Derived from the results
archive through the person registry, so a name spelled differently on two
certificates still counts as one person. 2003 is the baseline year and cannot have a
figure. A ward number does not describe identical territory in every year.
Most candidates are newcomers
IncumbentsReturning candidatesNewcomers
Candidates in each full general election, total above each bar.
Incumbent means holding the seat they contested, resolved through the
seat history; a by-election win or the 2017 appointment counts.
Returning means an earlier run in our records, which begin in 2003 —
so 2006's newcomer count runs high by artifact: a candidate whose earlier runs all
predate 2003 still reads as new. 2026 is faded because it is the ballot, not a result: it counts the
certified candidates, and incumbents can still lose. Derived from the results archive and the person registry.
Every motion outcome the council minutes print, by year. Recorded votes
— the ones with names attached — are the thin band; a voice vote records an
outcome and nobody's position. The full record, meeting by meeting, is on
council votes.
Most people run once
How many times each of the 389 people in the record
has appeared on a Barrie-area ballot since 2003 — municipal, federal or provincial —
2026 filings included. Derived from the
full candidate directory; candidacies are linked
across years, and across levels of government, only where confirmed by hand.
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