Motivated to investigate the 25 registered political parties in the province of Ontario, we checked the Elections Ontario website to get an idea of who’s who.

Ontario

Green Party of Ontario (GPO) is the only party that we are aware of with a history of opposing the discriminatory funding of Catholic school systems in the province. The party was registered in 1984. Greens have been elected in two Ontario ridings (Guelph and Kitchener Centre) and typically run candidates in most ridings. GPO, like most parties carrying the “Green” name, is founded on environmentalism. They state, “The Green Party of Ontario begins with the basic premise that all life on the planet is interconnected and that humans have a responsibility to protect and preserve the natural world.”

New Blue Party of Ontario (NBO) was registered in 2021 as a conservative protest party – that is, a conservatively-oriented party founded in protest to the province’s longest-standing (and governing) conservative party, the PC Party of Ontario. As of February 2025, it is not clear whether this party has any significant influence or standing beyond its grassroots foundation in Cambridge, Ontario. The party was co-founded by its current leader, Belinda Karahalios. The party’s “New Blueprint Vol. 2” states their priorities as: “Renew accountability and promote meritocracy by stopping “woke” activism starting by eliminating critical race theory, gender identity theory, and all DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives from government (including in healthcare and education); and Provide tax relief and grow Ontario’s economy by cutting the HST from 13% to 10%, axing the Doug Ford carbon tax, taking down wind turbines to reduce electricity prices, and cancelling all electrical vehicle subsidies.”

Canadians’ Choice Party (CCP) website states that their mandate is to, “help Independent Candidates across Ontario to better represent their ridings and to bring a fair measure of direct democracy to all Ontarians and Canadians.” and that they have four “pillars” grouped under the somewhat uncomfortable acronym FIST: Fiscal responsibility and respect for taxpayers, Individual freedom and the right to free speech, Sovereignty and protection of common-law rights, Transparency and accountability in government. Apparently these folks have been around since 2011 with “A bottom-up approach to engage citizens.” We’ll let you work out the pun(s) that inevitably (and perhaps, deservedly) comes to mind. The initiative seems to be earnestly motivated, but doesn’t really present a credible, self-consistent philosophy. CCP’s website implies that they do not have any clearly iterated policies or positions, “Where (sic) we take a stand on any given issue, it is in the direct interests of the constituents’ expressed desire, with a dynamic platform which will continually change as our democratic rights and responsibilities increase between elections.” so it is not possible to determine whether CCP is aligned with any issues of concern to humanists.

Populist Party Ontario (PPO) was registered in 2022 and their website may not have been revised since then since it still proclaims (as of February 2025), “With the Ontario provincial election June 2, 2022 coming up quickly, time is of the essence, and we need your active, tireless support if we are going to make a difference for our children and grandchildren.” While PPO claims to be concerned with human rights and freedoms, the only issue specifically identified is “emergency-level measures in responses to COVID-19, that led to the overriding of essential individual rights enshrined in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” PPO has no demonstrated interest in putting an end to the discriminatory funding of Catholic school systems in the province.

Concensus Ontario (CO) is another party with a narrow mandate unlikely to result in electing a candidate in any of the province’s ridings. Their focus is a shift to a ranked ballot system. According to CO, a shift to a ranked ballot would eliminate party politics and result in accountability to the electorate. It is not clear how this would be accomplished, but that is the aspiration and claim.