Peel Region natural heritage features and farmland © Brian CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Vote for Nature
The provincial government plays a significant role in Ontarians daily life and will chart a course of the future of the province. The next government could invest in protecting and restoring nature, while ensuring a climate resilient future that makes Ontario a more liveable and prosperous place. Or the next government could continue to weaken environmental protections and pursue unsustainable development patterns.
Together, we can halt and reverse biodiversity loss, restore protection for species at risk and protect our natural heritage. The next Government of Ontario must commit to protecting 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030, enhancing protections for species at risk, reversing anti-environment changes to provincial planning legislation and restoring the powers of Conservation Authorities.
Please raise your voice for biodiversity protection and climate action. Environmental issues are unlikely to be prominent without a strong push from the environmental community. The bedrock for our future is a healthy natural world. Every vote matters.
About
Ontario is headed for an early election. The provincial election will be held on February 27, 2025. Now is the time to assess the candidates and parties, and their environmental platforms and commitments. We must make our voices heard about the urgent need to address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. That can be achieved through a fair and just economy where people prosper.
An EKOS poll for Nature Canada found that 84% of respondents from across the political spectrum believe that the government should take stronger action to protect forests and wildlife. Further, nearly seven in 10 respondents say they are less likely to vote for a party whose platform lacks a commitment to nature.
Please help make the environment central to this election. Candidates must hear that voters will not stand for continued biodiversity loss and climate inaction. Together, we can be the voice for wild species and wild spaces in Ontario.
Top Policy Asks
Commit to a strategy to halt and reverse biodiversity decline in alignment with national and international commitments by:
- Protecting 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030
- Restoring and enhancing protections for Ontario’s species at risk
- Enabling and respecting Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and other Indigenous-led conservation efforts
- Increasing climate adaptation funding to nature-based solutions (e.g., wetland restoration, tree planting)
- Permanently protecting large intact forest areas of public lands from industrial resource extraction (e.g., mining and forestry)
Ensure Ontario’s provincial planning framework protects our ecosystems and biodiversity by:
- Restoring the powers of the Conservation Authorities
- Reversing changes to the Planning Act and overall provincial policy framework that encourage sprawl and weaken protections for natural heritage
- Cancelling Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, investing in public and active transportation and increased density in existing urban boundaries instead
- Reversing changes that limit the protections of all wetlands and that make it easier for them to lose their provincially significant status
- Protecting, strengthening and expanding the Greenbelt
Please speak up about any other environmental issues that may not be covered here but are important to you and others in your riding.
What You Can Do
There’s only one Ontario and the time to protect it is now.
- Consider the issues that matter the most to you and see where your local candidates stand on them, and check their voting records
- Write a letter to the editor
- Talk to your friends, colleagues, neighbours and family about their priorities and discuss the importance of voting for nature
- Send letters to candidates running in your district asking for specific commitments
- Ask questions at all-candidate debates
- Volunteer for candidates or parties that commit to addressing the climate and biodiversity crises
- Register to vote and be informed about voting
- Keep nature in mind when you head to the polls and vote for the candidate who you feel will best protect Ontario’s wild species and wild spaces
A Vote for Nature Is
- A vote for the security and well-being of our children and grandchildren.
- A vote for the programs, laws, and policies that protect our collective well-being and quality of life.
- A vote to put our long-term interests ahead of unsustainable, short-term profiteering.
- Your chance to be heard.
- A healthy environment is the foundation for healthy people and a healthy economy.
Impact
Whom Ontarians elect to form the next provincial government will have huge implications for setting environmental policy in a province that has had environmental protections significantly weakened.
Ontario contains one-fifth of the world’s freshwater, the third-largest wetland in the world, more than 240 species at risk, 3,600 plant species, 70 Important Bird Areas and roughly 300 species of breeding birds. The provincial government has primary jurisdiction over our lands and waters.
The United Nations asserted that the Earth has reached the “global boiling era”. A warming planet has irreversible consequences for biodiversity, and 2024 was the hottest year on record.
Please share this webpage with your friends and family about the importance of voting for nature in the election.