Acclamations
Seats filled without a vote. When only one person is certified for an office, the City Clerk is required to declare them elected, and the voters entitled to vote for that seat never get a ballot for it.
Under the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, s. 37(1): if at 4 p.m. on the Monday following nomination day the number of certified candidates for an office is the same as or fewer than the number to be elected, the clerk shall immediately declare them elected by acclamation. It is not a choice the clerk makes.
Acclaimed seats on record
Source: City of Barrie certificates of election results, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2018 and 2022. The 2010 certificates — council and the separately-issued school-board declarations — are also on record and show no acclamations. See election results for the full documents.
The back-to-back pattern
Robert Thomson (Ward 5) and Gary Harvey (Ward 7) were both acclaimed in 2022. As of August 21, 2026, both wards are contested.
How complete this table is: every general election from 2003 to 2022 is now covered by a certificate — the 2003 declaration and the 2010 school-board declarations were recovered from the Internet Archive in August 2026, closing what used to be gaps here. Nothing earlier than 2003 has been found, so the record of three acclamations (2003, all school-board seats; matched in 2022) is a record within what is documented, not necessarily within Barrie's whole history.
Common questions
What is an acclamation in a municipal election?
A seat filled without a vote. Under the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, s. 37(1): if at 4 p.m. on the Monday following nomination day the number of certified candidates for an office is the same as or fewer than the number to be elected, the clerk shall immediately declare them elected by acclamation. It is not a choice the clerk makes.
How many Barrie seats have been acclaimed?
11 seats appear in the acclamation record on this page, across Barrie municipal elections from 2003 to 2022, from the City's certificates of election results. The 2010 certificates are also on record and show no acclamations.
Will any 2026 Barrie races be acclaimed?
The Clerk's declaration after certifying nominations decides what was acclaimed — see the candidates page and the table on this page once the certified record is transcribed.