Winning Local Office: The Importance of Resources

What can first-time candidates for local office do to maximize their chances of winning? This talk highlights the importance of resources – financial and beyond. Drawing on the largest-ever survey of candidates for local office in Canada, Zack Taylor and Martin Horak find that spending and volunteer recruitment are significant predictors of winning for non-incumbents (but that they do not matter for incumbents). In addition, their results show that that the ability to mobilize funds and recruit volunteers is in turn supported by a candidate’s prior campaign experience and community involvement.

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Presentation from 7:00–8:00pm. League business begins at 8:00pm.

Please note pre-registration is not required. If the event shows “sold out” please feel free to still attend.

Attendance will be taken via a sign-in sheet. Non-members are welcome.

Speaker Bio

Martin Horak, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Western University

Martin specializes in Canadian and comparative urban politics. His research and publications address a range of related subjects, including multilevel urban governance, urban transit and housing policy, local political institutions, public opinion on municipal issues and local election campaigns. He is the co-editor, along with Zack Taylor and Jack Lucas, of City Politics in Canada: Forty Years of Continuity and Change (2025), and the Director of Western’s Urban Centre.