Can you run for one elected office while holding another one?
Trading elected offices: what the law says

Many of the laws governing the operations of cities, and the election of city councilors are part of the Ontario Municipal Act. Last revised in 2001, this Act governs who may or may not run for city councils, or hold the office of a municipal-level councilor.

Campaigning as a city councilor to be a federal MP

The Canada Elections Act and the Parliament of Canada Act do not disqualify municipal councilors from being elected to or serving in the House of Commons. Ontario's Municipal Act, 2001, however, does contain the following constraint:

258. (1) The following are not eligible to be elected as a member of a council or to hold office as a member of a council:
3. A member of the Assembly as provided in the Legislative Assembly Act, or of the Senate, or House of Commons of Canada.

That is to say, a member of the House of Commons may not hold office as a member of a municipal council in Ontario. No law, federal or provincial, prevents someone from being a member of council while campaigning, or becoming a candidate for office as an MP. It is only actual membership in the House of Commons which affects one's right to hold office as a member of council.

At what point, then, must a city councilor who has run successfully for membership of the House of Commons cease to be a member of city council to be in compliance with Ontario law? It depends on when the successful candidate is regarded as a member of the House of Commons.

• That moment cannot be before the Chief Electoral Officer has the names of the winners of the election published in the Canada Gazette;
• It could be argued that the point is reached later: when the Chief Electoral Officer sends a certificate of the successful candidate's election to the Clerk;
• or, finally, when the Clerk swears in the new member. The election-winner cannot take his or her seat or participate in the House until sworn in by the Clerk. For certain other purposes (negotiating office space, etc), being gazetted might make the offices of Parliament begin to treat the successful candidates are members.

Federal law does not regard city council membership as a disqualification for membership in either house of Parliament.

Campaigning as a federal MP to be a city councilor

The Canada Elections Act and the Parliament of Canada Act do not create any cross-disqualifications between municipal council membership and membership in either house of Parliament.

What an MP faces when seeking municipal office, nevertheless, is Ontario's Municipal Elections Act. Subsection (1.1.) of Section 29 provides as follows:

29. (1.1) Despite subsection (1) and despite section 258 of the Municipal Act, 2001, section 203 of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, section 9 of the Legislative Assembly Act and section 219 of the Education Act, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario or the Senate or House of Commons of Canada is not ineligible to be nominated for an office in an election by virtue of being a member of any of those bodies but, if the person is a member of any of those bodies as of the close of nominations on nomination day of the election, the nomination shall be rejected by the clerk under section 35.

In other words, the MP must have resigned membership in the Commons before the close of nominations on nomination day.

The playing field, therefore, is not "level" in that sitting members of city council may hold their office while campaigning at the federal (and provincial) level, while federal (and provincial) elected members must resign their elected office on or before nomination day in order to campaign for a municipal elected office. The MP (or MPP) has to resign before the close of nominations for the election to council. The Councilor has to resign just before the moment of becoming an MP.