Questions to ask municipal election candidates

Here are questions we’ve collected over time from candidate interviews, surveys and email conversations which can be used as a reference or inspiration when asking local candidates and elected officials about their stances or action plans to address local issues.

Asking candidates good questions can help voters determine:

• What their priorities are
• What causes they feel strongest about
• What interests they represent
• What they value

and bring local issues to their attention.

Each candidate should be able to articulate a vision for their community and how they intend to use the powers of the role to contribute to that vision. That vision should be based in principle, and followed up with workable plans that help progress towards that goal.

What is their job?

A member of council’s job is to balance the dual responsibility of representing the interests of their constituents with ensuring the long-term well-being of the municipality. They must play 3 main roles:

• Representative of residents’ views and concerns
• Policy-maker to establish the direction of the municipality and its future actions
• Steward of public finances

More: Municipal councillor job description

What areas will they be responsible for?

• Members of council: Municipal government
• MPPs: Provincial government
• MPs: Federal government

Types of questions to ask

To find out what a candidate will actually do, ask questions that use:

• Behavioral interviewing. Asking for past examples of specific situations to get a more realistic and nuanced sense of how they work. Past behavior is a good indicator of future behavior.
• Forced trade-offs. Governing is about managing limited resources. Make them choose between competing priorities and what they will sacrifice.
• Accountability metrics. What does success look like? SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals.
• Specifics. Demand numbers, timelines, legal changes, budgets, benchmarks.
• Past decisions. Reference decisions, votes, statements, or records and ask why positions changed.

Yes/no questions look to get a clear yes or no response to quickly determine which side a candidate stands on a particular issue before diving into deeper discussion with open-ended questions:

• Will/Would/Do you support…

Open-ended questions are designed to encourage participants to elaborate, provide reasoning, and explore different perspectives that can provide insight into a candidate’s understanding, priorities, policy perspectives, and specific plans to address key issues that affect residents.

• What is your stance/perspective/view/vision on…
• How do you view…
• What projects/programs/legislation/policies/actions would you enact/support/advocate for…
• What steps will you take to…
• How would you ensure…

What are the highest priority issues?

Prioritize questions about the biggest issues facing the electoral district. Politicians should be activists working to make progress on big issues facing their level of government broadly, and in their communities specifically.

For example, in 2026 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, they include:

• Cost of living (All levels of government)
• Affordable housing (All)
• Transitional housing (All)
• Homelessness (shelters) (Provincial)
• Infrastructure gap (Municipal)
• Food insecurity (All)

Questions

Why them

• What do you feel sets you apart from the other candidates?
• Why should constituents vote for you?
• Why do you feel you should represent [electoral district]?

Motivations and path to politics

• Why are you running for [role]? What led you to running for [role]?
• What made you want to run in this election?
• What first prompted you to run for council?
• Why do you want to be a councillor/mayor?
• Why do you want to lead [municipality] as councillor/mayor?
• Were you recruited to run for office?
• Who encouraged you to run?
• When/how did you decide to run?
• How would you describe your personal political ideology and/or affiliation?
• If you are not successful in this by-election, will you seek the nomination to run in the next general election?

Experience

• What previous political experience do you have?
• What did you do before running for member of council?
• How have you been involved in the community?
• What would you say is the job description/purpose of a council member?
• What makes you an ideal representative of this area?
• What have you found are the biggest misconceptions held by voters?

Priorities

• What are your top [#] issues?
• What are the three most common issues voters are bringing up to you as you campaign?
• What is the most pressing issue in all of [municipality]?
• What is the most pressing issue in your ward/district?
• What is the number one issue you want to address during this term of council?
• What do you consider the most pressing issues for [ward/district]? For the [municipality] at large?
• What needs improvement in your ward/district?
• What do you hope to accomplish as [position]?
• If you are elected, what are your first steps?
• If elected, what do you plan to accomplish in your first 100 days?

Issues

First, know which services municipal governments are responsible for and have control over. Here is a list.

Then determine which of these are most important to the community, right now.

• How will you go about addressing [issue #1]?
• How will you measure success regarding [issue #1]?

Housing

• Do you support establishing a short-term rental registry to regulate short-term accommodations (eg. Airbnbs)?

Healthcare

• Do you support a physician recruitment program?
• Do you support a physician retention program?

Economic development

• What do you think is the best way to handle [municipality]’s growth?

Police services

Climate change

Background: The Federal government has a legislated target to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 through the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act as well as its 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan and associated progress reports. The Ontario government currently has a non-statutory target of reducing GHG emissions 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, and does not have any legislated net-zero targets or plan related to 2050.  

• How will you help fight climate change in [municipality]?

Transportation

• How do you feel about the transportation options currently available in our municipality? How will you make it so residents can affordably get where they need to go?
• What would be your priorities for investments in improving street safety and connectivity for residents? How would you fund these priorities?
• What are the most important things that need to happen to accommodate increased numbers of people requiring mobility as our region is expected to grow?
• What changes do you foresee to land-use and zoning and how might these changes impact our ability to support current residents and enable new residents to live, work and play in our municipality?
• How will you make our transportation network more accessible to everyone in all seasons?

Road safety

• How will you make it safer for my kids to walk or bike to school?
• How will you make it safer for me to walk or bike to the store?
• What is your opinion on lowering speed limits?
• What are your ideas for a safe and equitable transit system?

Arts

• Do you think art and culture add value to [municipality]? How does it contribute?
• What are the most important ways the [municipality] can engage with arts and culture through strategic planning, policy, investment, programming, etc.? 
• Do you support continued funding for arts and culture in the municipal budget?
• Can the arts community count on you to be an advocate at Council in the future?

Electoral reform

• Do you support electoral reform/proportional representation?
• Would you vote in favour of moving forward with a ranked ballot in [municipality]?

Diversity

• How will you embrace and champion diversity in this role?

Measuring performance

• How will you measure success?
• What are your key performance indicators for the next 4 years?

Hypothetical

• If you received a one million dollar grant to use for the municipality any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

Other interview questions

• What is your greatest strength?
• What do you consider to be your weaknesses?
• What is your greatest professional achievement?
• How would you describe your leadership style?
• Tell me about a challenge or conflict you’ve faced, and how you dealt with it.
• Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership skills.
• What’s a time you disagreed with a decision that was made at work?
• Can you tell me a situation when you made a mistake and what you learned from it?
• Tell me about a time you failed.
• How do you motivate people?
• Tell me about a time you led by example.
• How do you handle conflict between team members?
• Has there ever been a time when you’ve had to do something at work because of a policy that went against your values?
• Provide an example of a time when you provided a customer with excellent customer service. How did the client react?
• How do you delegate responsibilities?

Questions for school board trustees

• How would you lobby the provincial government to increase funding levels for elementary education?
• Do you believe that teachers should have the right to strike? Explain.
• Describe your understanding of the extent and nature of classroom violence in Halton and Ontario schools. What role can trustees play in addressing the issue of violence in the classroom?
• What is your position on corporate involvement in public education?
• What role should school fundraising play in supporting schools? How would you address the issue of have and have-not schools?
• Do you support the funding of private schools? Please explain.
• What would you do to promote different forms of transportation for students?

Ask follow-up questions

There are many techniques candidates and politicians use to avoid answering questions. They are incentivized to answer questions in whatever way they think will produce the best outcome for themselves, not necessarily the truth. This means pivoting, deflecting blame and delivering pre-packaged talking points. Watch for:

• Persistent vagueness, repeated pivoting to slogans.
• Refusal to provide specifics (numbers, timelines, or responsible names).
• Blaming others without describing what they will do differently.
• Avoiding trade-offs or pretending everything can be done for free.

Pivoting. A candidate may say “Yes, but…” and pivot to their talking points. If they start pivoting, politely interrupt:

I appreciate that perspective, but my specific question was about [topic]. Can you name one example?

You’ve acknowledged the problem, but now you’re talking about your party’s general platform. I’m asking about a specific $10 million line item. Can we go back to that $10 million – where specifically is it coming from?

Deflecting blame to “the feds” (if they are provincial) or “the province” (if they are municipal) To address this, acknowledge the jurisdictional split first to take away their exit ramp. eg. “I know that [issue] involves federal funding, but as a provincial candidate…” It forces them to discuss the levers they do control rather than the ones they don’t.

Over to you

If you contact your local candidates to ask questions, please consider sending us their responses so we can publish them here on Open Council.

That way, instead of being buried in your email archives, other members of your community can see their response and benefit from the insight provided by their answers. In addition, the candidate won’t have to answer that same question as many times as they would otherwise, saving them time and allowing them to focus on answering other questions or developing their platform.

What other questions should candidates or elected officials be asked?