Group membership and campaign activities

Once you have decided to nominate as a candidate for a local government election, you may also choose to form a group with other candidates contesting the same local government area. You can only be a member of one group and each group can only have one mayoral candidate. A registered political party is not considered to be a group.

Candidates must register as a group with the ECQ before engaging in group campaign activities. It is an offence for candidates to engage in group campaign activities without being registered as a group.

Groups can campaign collectively. A group campaign activity is any of the following activities carried out by 2 or more candidates in an intentionally coordinated way:

using a common platform to promote the election of the candidate, including for example, the same political policies
candidates using the same advertisements, including pamphlets, billboards and any other media; the same campaign slogans, same brands or images, same how-to-vote cards; and other election material that promotes the election of the candidates
participating in the same fundraising activities or events
sharing the same resources for election campaigns, including human resources (other than volunteers) between the candidates
giving or sharing gifts or loans between the candidates.

Video overviews

What is a group campaign activity?

Links to further information:

Fact sheet 21 – Funding and disclosure overview for groups of candidates