The Candidate Pledge

Show Voters You'll Protect the Greenbelt

Signing the Municipal Leadership Pledge tells voters exactly where you stand before they head to the polls.

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The Candidate Pledge

Stand Out to Greenbelt-Minded Voters

Thousands of Ontarians care about protecting farmland, water, and nature — signing puts your name in front of them.

Read the PledgeView Candidates in your Municipality

The Candidate Pledge

Join Candidates Across the Province

Add your voice to a growing list of municipal candidates committed to defending the Greenbelt.

Read the PledgeView Candidates in your Municipality

Municipal Leadership Pledge

Ontario’s Greenbelt protects what communities need to thrive: clean water, local food, farmland, natural heritage, rural communities, responsible growth, and a more climate-resilient future. Because these shared foundations do not stop at municipal boundaries; communities within, beside, and beyond the Greenbelt all have a stake in protecting them.

If elected to municipal office, I pledge to support Council decisions and policies that protect and strengthen farmland, water systems, natural heritage, and complete communities. I will do this to protect my community and its future. In areas where Greenbelt policies apply, I will uphold the Greenbelt legacy and the values, vision, and objectives reflected in Ontario’s Greenbelt Act and Greenbelt Plan, including the protection of the Greenbelt as a connected system that includes the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Niagara Escarpment. Finally, I will maintain my independence and ability to act in the public interest, making decisions based on the needs of my community rather than the financial interests of campaign contributors.

The pledge is now closed

The Municipal Leadership Pledge closed on election day, October 26, 2026. Thank you to every candidate who signed and committed to protecting farmland, water and nature in their community. The map below shows where they signed.

Thank you for signing the Greenbelt Candidate Pledge. Our team will review your submission, and your name will appear on the candidate pledge wall once approved.
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This commitment is grounded in the Greenbelt’s proven public benefits:

  • Water: The Greenbelt provides clean drinking water for over 7 million Ontarians.
  • Economy: Greenbelt-connected economic activity contributes $17 billion to Ontario’s GDP and supports more than 247,000 full-time jobs.
  • Farms and food: The Greenbelt protects 750,000 acres of some of Canada’s most productive farmland and is home to more than 4,000 operating farms.
  • Climate and resilience: The Greenbelt’s natural systems provide nearly three times more ecological benefit per hectare than the rest of Ontario, meaning these protected landscapes are among Ontario’s most effective natural assets for reducing flood risk, absorbing carbon, protecting water, and strengthening climate resilience.
  • Biodiversity: The Greenbelt is home to 121 species at risk, representing 42% of all species at risk in Ontario.
  • Recreation and tourism: The Greenbelt supports trails, cycling routes, river corridors, green spaces, rural destinations, local food, tourism, and recreation.

The Pledge by the Numbers

Between September 11 and election day, 449 municipal candidates in 74 communities signed the Municipal Leadership Pledge. They committed to protect farmland, water systems and natural heritage, to uphold the Greenbelt where it applies, and to make decisions in the public interest rather than for campaign donors.

Candidates signed in 56 of the 62 municipalities in the Greenbelt, and in 68 of the 99 in or within 20 km of it. Most signed in the final weeks of the campaign, as voters and local groups asked candidates where they stood.

On October 26, at least 115 of them were elected, including 14 mayors. Three of those mayors unseated a sitting mayor. Pledge signatories will now sit on councils in 51 municipalities, 39 of them in the Greenbelt.

Thank you to every candidate who signed, and to every resident who asked the question. Over the next four years, we'll be working with these councils to keep the commitments made in this pledge.

Results are unofficial until certified by each municipality's clerk.