When the Brand Is Missing: Lessons from Non-Partisan Elections
By Mike Medeiros
Ontarians head to the polls next week to elect mayors, councillors, and school board trustees. But when voters look at the ballot, one familiar guide to a candidate’s political identity will be missing: the political party.
While elections without political parties are relatively uncommon around the world, Canada offers several examples. At the territorial level, candidates in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories run without party labels. Non-partisan elections are also the norm at the municipal level across the country, where candidates generally run without formal party affiliations.
There are a few exceptions. Municipal political parties operate in Quebec and British Columbia, whereas Alberta allowed, for the first time in 2025, political parties to participate in municipal elections in Calgary and Edmonton.
The absence of political parties matters because they serve important functions. They recruit political leaders, organize political competition, and bring different interests together under broader political programmes. They also help voters decide whom to support.
For voters, a recognizable party label is a useful shortcut. It communicates the candidate’s political identity and likely policy preferences. Voters do not need to examine candidates’ positions in detail; they can rely on their existing understanding of a party to make an informed, if imperfect, judgement.
Psychologists call this a heuristic: a mental shortcut that helps people make decisions without processing every available piece of information.
Without party labels, voters lose an important cue. They must work harder to understand who candidates are, what they stand for, and how they might govern.
Candidates face a similar challenge. They must communicate their identity and political outlook without relying on an established party brand. The challenge is not simply to communicate a message. It is to convey the information that a party label would otherwise provide.
So How Do Voters Decide?
Voters can use voter advice applications, such as Vote Compass for the municipal elections in Ontario, to see which candidates’ positions most closely align with their own.
But research on non-partisan elections suggests that voters also rely on other cues.
Name recognition is one of the most important. In low-information elections, familiar names have an advantage. Voters may recognize candidates from previous campaigns, local news, or community activities. When they know little about the candidates, familiarity itself can become a reason to vote for someone.
Incumbency can therefore provide an advantage. Existing officeholders are more likely to be recognized, as well as have a public record on which voters can base their decisions. Without party labels to distinguish candidates, experience and familiarity can become important cues.
Endorsements are another important signal. Support from a respected community organization, union, or newspaper can indicate a candidate’s values and priorities. Such endorsements lend credibility to a candidate, especially when voters have little other information to guide their choice.
Ideology also matters. Removing party labels does not make voters apolitical. They continue to draw on broader ideological preferences, using signals beyond party labels to guide their choices. Candidates’ positions on housing, development, taxation, and public services can all help voters infer where they stand.
Non-partisan elections do not eliminate political divisions; they change how candidates signal their political views and how voters interpret them.
What Does This Mean for Communication Professionals?
The absence of party labels makes political communication more challenging, but it also highlights some basic principles of effective communication.
Be, or Become, Known
Voters are unlikely to choose a candidate they have never heard of. Candidates need to build visibility well before election day through traditional and social media, community events, public meetings, and direct engagement.
Also, voters should be able to connect a candidate’s name with a recognizable identity and clear priorities. Repetition matters, but so does consistency. This is particularly important for challengers, who lack the built-in recognition that comes with incumbency.
Define Yourself Clearly
Without a party label, candidates must explain not only what they propose to do, but also what they believe and what distinguishes them from their opponents.
Ideological descriptions such as “progressive” or “pro-business” can provide shorthand, as can clear positions on local issues. Candidates can draw on their professional backgrounds, community involvement, and personal experiences to communicate what they represent.
Candidates can also position themselves in relation to well-known political figures. In Ontario, for example, Doug Ford often serves as an ideological reference point, helping voters interpret a local candidate’s political positions.
Visual branding, colours, and slogans can also make a message more recognizable. But they are useful only when they reinforce a substantive identity. A memorable slogan cannot replace a clear explanation of what a candidate wants to achieve.
Build Coalitions and Use Endorsements
Without formal party organizations, community networks become especially important for building recognition and credibility. Candidates seek support from neighbourhood associations, unions, civic organizations, and other groups whose members may trust their judgement.
These relationships do more than provide volunteers or access to new audiences. They can signal credibility. An endorsement tells voters that someone they recognize or trust considers the candidate worthy of support.
However, not all endorsements carry equal weight. Their value depends on the organization’s reputation, its relationship with the community, and whether voters share its priorities.
Make The Issues Tangible
Municipal responsibilities can be technical and poorly understood. Candidates need to connect policy positions to everyday experiences: housing affordability, traffic, transit, recreation, public safety, and the quality of local services.
Concrete explanations help voters understand what is at stake and distinguish between competing proposals. They also allow candidates to demonstrate their knowledge of local problems rather than relying on broad political identities.
Lessons Beyond Politics
These lessons extend well beyond elections. Organizations without a powerful, widely recognized brand face a similar challenge: they must communicate who they are, what they stand for, and why people should trust them.
A familiar brand reduces the information people need to make a decision. Without it, reputation, consistent messaging, endorsements, and visible relationships become more important. People rely on signals from others, previous experience, and the clarity of the message itself.
Non-partisan elections remind us that communication is not just about delivering information. It is also about helping people interpret it. Candidates may have detailed platforms, sound policy proposals, and strong qualifications; but those qualities matter only if voters can recognize and understand them.
Political parties normally do some of this work. They provide an established identity, a recognizable set of values, and a ready-made connection with voters.
Without that support, candidates must build these connections themselves. They need to become known, explain what they stand for, and establish why they deserve voters’ trust.
The broader lesson is straightforward: when an established brand cannot do the work of communicating identity and credibility, those perceptions must be built deliberately through consistent messages, recognizable priorities, and visible evidence of trustworthiness.
Mike Medeiros is a political scientist and communications specialist with expertise in political psychology, public communication, and audience behaviour. He holds a PhD in Political Science and recently completed the Strategic Public Relations program at the University of Toronto.