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Tag: voting

Stronger Together: 2025 Federal Election

The 2025 Canadian federal election is fast approaching, with a set date of April 28, 2025. This election will be very important for so many reasons. 27% of people in Canada over the age of 15 have a disability. Despite this, disability issues rarely get much attention during elections. Together, we can change that.

As candidates work hard to win your vote, they are more receptive than ever to hearing what you have to say. Elections are an opportunity to have our opinions and priorities heard. They offer a chance to tell leaders what matters to us.

Imagine if the more than 8 million people with disabilities in Canada asked their local political candidate how they plan to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Now, think about the impact if their friends, families, and supporters did the same thing!

Our Election Priorities

To make sure that issues affecting people with disabilities get the attention they deserve, we created our 2025 Election Priorities document. We have five priorities:

  1. Enhancing Financial Security
  2. Reforming Canada’s Discriminatory MAiD Law
  3. Investing in Inclusive Employment Opportunities
  4. Increasing Access to Inclusive Affordable Housing for All
  5. Strengthening Families: Support Children and Youth with Disabilities

These are the commitments we want political parties to make. We want this document to get into the hands of every candidate in the country. We’re working with our provincial and territorial member organizations to meet with as many candidates as possible before the election.

Click here for our plain language version.


How to Get Involved

This election, Inclusion Canada co-hosted, along with Elections Canada, two informative webinars. One was about reducing barriers to working at the election polls or at Elections Canada during this campaign. The other was about making the voting process more accessible and easier for you when you go to cast your ballot and exercise your right to vote. If you missed these webinars, don’t worry, you can watch the recordings below:

Reducing Barriers to Working at the Polls

Click here to access the webinar’s powerpoint.

Reducing Barriers to Voting

Click here to access the webinar’s powerpoint.


How You Can Help

We’re committed to making disability issues a priority, and we need your help. Here are some things you can do to make a difference:

  • Read Inclusion Canada’s “Stronger Together: 2025 Federal Election Priorities” document
  • Talk to your family and friends about the issues that are important to you.
  • Encourage everyone to vote. Let people know that they have a right to the accommodations and support they need to vote.
  • Share Inclusion Canada’s posts on our social media platforms: Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Bluesky
  • If a candidate comes to your door, talk to them about things that are important for people with disabilities.
  • Contact the candidates in your area and ask to meet with them. Our documents can help you plan what you want to say.
  • Listen to what the political parties have to say about disability. Use this information to make an informed choice.
  • And maybe the most important of all – vote! We get to have a say about who leads our country and the decisions they make impacting people with disabilities. Let’s make our priorities heard.

People with an intellectual disability and their families are asking all parties to include a National Disability Action Plan in their 2019 election platforms to promote health and well-being, advance employment and opportunities for community inclusion, fund accessible housing, and build on the Accessible Canada Act to make Canada a more inclusive country for persons with disabilities. 

Developed in collaboration with CACL’s national federation, our call for a National Disability Action Plan includes a far-reaching disability and inclusion policy lens which places persons with disabilities and their families at the core of decision making, requiring government officials to consider the impact that all policy decisions (not just disability-specific policies) will have on persons with disabilities.

With Canada’s ratification in 2010 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), all levels of government in  Canada are obligated to respect, protect, and promote the rights of persons with disabilities, and to address long-standing barriers to full participation, inclusion, and citizenship. A National Disability Action Plan must be rooted in Canada’s obligations under the CRPD. 

In pursuing a National Disability Action Plan, Canada must remember that the population of persons with disabilities is not homogeneous. Needs and experiences differ between and within the disability community; all must be engaged. In designing a National Disability Action Plan, parties should respectfully and meaningfully include marginalized populations with disabilities who are under-served and face intersectional discrimination due to gender and sexuality (LGBTQ2S+), incarceration, Indigeneity, mental illness, migrant status, poverty, and/or race. As a best practice, CACL encourages all federal parties to work alongside grassroots communities and organizations, trusting their expertise and knowledge.

A National Disability Action Plan, developed in consultation with persons with disabilities, their families, and their respective organizations, is critically needed to break down barriers to inclusion for people with disabilities in Canada. This election, we call on all federal party candidates to include people with disabilities in their platform commitments.

Federal Election Strategy 2019 (Main Document) – English

Federal Election Strategy 2019 (Supporting Documents) – English

stratégie électorale fédérale 2019 (document principal) – Francais

stratégie électorale fédérale 2019 (documents à l’appui) – Francais

For information about voting accommodations for inclusion and accessibility, visit the Elections Canada website.