Be part of something big!
Tap into expertise, community and other supports on your campaign journey.
How do we give women and gender-diverse candidates the tools - in the moment - to pivot, take action & create safety in their campaigns?
Most first-time candidates do not have the same level of resources, funding or volunteers as incumbents.
Let us level the playing field, at no cost to you or your campaign.
Our group of multi-partisan volunteers, from across Canada, have expertise in all elements of a campaign.
They will:
Ensure that you have a community of peers while you tackle the patriarchy of politics.
Help you with the mechanics of campaigns, as well as serve as a brain trust and triage team.
Provide drop-in hours to ask questions on the spot and provide some targeted advice related to elements of your campaign.
Connect you with our Federal Election Taskforce, who are looking to provide you with various kinds of free support on your campaign.
Give you wind in your sails knowing that you can rely on your community at any point in your campaign.
By joining the Run Club, that means when elected, you will be a strong advocate rights such as:
Women's reproductive choice;
Trans inclusion and gender equity, including beyond the binary;
Universal access to childcare;
Ending gender-based violence;
Promoting pay equity; and,
An intersectional approach to equality and work to elevate the experiences of Indigenous peoples and people of colour.
You can run a campaign while staying true to your values and principles. You just need a community to support and elevate you.
As a pilot initiative, we are starting by accepting up to 15 women or gender-diverse candidates from the 2025 Federal Election into our inaugural Run Club cohort. We will continue to accept candidates as the Task Force grows.
-
Baseline Criteria
Candidates must identify as women or gender-diverse individuals.
It must be a candidate’s first time running in a General Federal Election. (We accept candidates who ran in a federal by-election or other electoral sphere).
The candidate cannot be running against a woman or gender-diverse incumbent. There is one exception: They are running in a district where there is a woman or gender-diverse incumbent who has been vocally against the values OTTL represents.
The candidate must agree with the sets of values OTTL believes politicians should champion.
Until Nominations Closed:
OTTL created a preliminary list, in order of candidates gaining nomination, removing candidates who did NOT meet the above baseline criteria.
OTTL then prioritized remaining women and gender-diverse candidates who openly identified with another equity-deserving group, recognizing that feminist representation isn’t a one-size fit all.
OTTL also prioritized women and gender-diverse candidates who were in a riding with opponents who have been openly vocal against core human rights and the values listed at the top of page.
OTTL also added extra consideration to candidates who were in ridings that were new districts or where an incumbent was not returning.
OTTL separated candidates by party (Liberal, NDP, Green, Conservative) and invited the first 6 people on each list, with a first-accept-first-serve basis. After a certain time period of no response (or if the candidate cannot commit to upholding the values OTTL holds as standard), OTTL moves onto the next number of candidates to send an invite, to keep number of invites by party equal.
Upon Nominations Closing:
Upon Nominations closing, OTTL moves from a recruitment phase to an operational phase, whereby OTTL does not actively invite or follow up with candidates who were initially invited.
At the same time, there is an open application form on the OTTL website for candidates to continue to apply. Eligible candidates who apply will be accepted as the Task Force grows and has capacity to take on more candidate tasks - no matter their party.
Acceptance after nominations close are at a first apply-first served basis at this point because OTTL believes that if folks identify with what they read here and could use the support, we want to help them.
Plans for Out Next Iteration?
We hope to scale up and have more bilingual OTTL team members and task force members. That way, we can more confidently support Bloc Quebecois and French-speaking communities. We plan to do this after the 2025 Federal Election by building relationships with groups already doing the great work in predominately French-speaking communities.
We are always open to feedback on our processes - email Hello@RunWinLead.ca!