What to watch on Oakville's election night: a five-way mayoral race, 18 contested ballots and six seats already decided

The night in one table

The mayoral race

Five candidates are certified for Mayor of the Town of Oakville, listed by the Town in alphabetical order: Rob Burton, Arvind Choudhary, Julia Hanna, Jeff Knoll and Sean O'Meara. Every elector in Oakville votes in this race, so it is the one count that will move town-wide through the evening as the 40 locations report. OakvilleIQ does not endorse candidates; the election hub carries each candidate's official listing and the Town's certified list is the authoritative record.

Twelve contested Council seats

Besides the mayoralty, Council has 14 ward seats: a Town Councillor and a Town and Regional Councillor in each of seven wards. All seven Town Councillor seats are contested, with fields ranging from two candidates in Ward 3 to six in Ward 5. Four of the seven Town and Regional Councillor seats are contested: Ward 2 (four candidates), Ward 4 (six), Ward 5 (three) and Ward 7 (five).

Three Town and Regional Councillor seats were acclaimed when nominations closed on August 21, because only one candidate filed for each: Jonathan McNeice in Ward 1, Janet Haslett-Theall in Ward 3 and Tom Adams in Ward 6. Those names will not appear on a ballot and no vote count will be reported for them. Each ward's voters still choose a Town Councillor, so there is a contested race in every ward.

School board trustees

Which trustee race appears on a voter's ballot depends on their school support designation. Oakville elects four Halton District School Board trustees (Wards 1 and 2, Wards 3 and 6, Ward 4, and Wards 5 and 7), all contested, with fields of three to six candidates. Of the three Halton Catholic District School Board seats, two are contested (Wards 1, 2 and 3, and Wards 5 and 6); Chris Saunders was acclaimed for Wards 4 and 7. The French-language seats were both acclaimed: Sonia Macaluso for Conseil scolaire Viamonde and Diane Courchesne for Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir.

What is already known

Advance voting ran for ten days, October 7 to 10 and 13 to 18, and the Town reported 14,787 ballots cast, which it puts at 8.35 per cent of Oakville's electoral population. Those ballots are counted with the Election Day ballots, so no advance result is released ahead of the night.

The voters' list closes to changes on Friday, October 23 at noon, through the Town's Am I On the List tool. Anyone not on the list can still vote on the day by showing identification with their name and qualifying address; voter cards have already been mailed and the Town encourages voters to bring them, though a card is not required.

How to follow the count

• Voting locations close at 8 p.m. The Town posts nothing until all 40 locations have closed.
• Unofficial results are posted on elections.oakville.ca and shown live in the South Atrium at Town Hall, 1225 Trafalgar Road. The Town says the public is welcome to attend.
• Official results follow certification by the Town Clerk and are posted on the same site. OakvilleIQ's results page records the Town's figures as they are published, race by race, and never projects a winner.
• The new term of Council begins on Monday, November 16, 2026.