Running for office has always been tricky business. 

As the writer Will Rogers remarked nearly a century ago, “Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat.”

Traditionally, political campaigns could keep their costs down by leveraging political volunteers — people willing to knock on doors, put up signs, staff riding associations and show up on election day to scrutinize polls. 

“Volunteers are the lifeblood of political campaigns,” said Toronto-based political consultant Brett Thalmann. “They’re critical to [campaign] effectiveness.”

But fewer people are now offering their time. Experts say an across-the-board decline in volunteerism is forcing political parties to rely more heavily on paid services, digital tools and activist networks.

“Without [volunteers], you don’t really have a campaign,” said Cameron Bonesso, president of the campaign management firm Constituent Manager Solutions. “ If you don’t have volunteers, you have to pay people, and you have a limited budget to do so.”

Pulling back

Statistics Canada does not have detailed volunteer data by category, such as political volunteerism.

But the agency’s data show a general decline in volunteerism. In 2023, 32 per cent of Canadians volunteered with organizations, down from 41 per cent in 2018. Over the same period, formal volunteer hours dropped 28 per cent, to an average of 173 hours a year. 

Bonesso, who served as the Ottawa Centre Conservative Association president from 2022 to 2025, has seen this decline firsthand.

“ I remember on election day [for the 2018 Ontario election], we had over a hundred people that were inside the campaign office at one time,” he said. 

“For some of the more recent campaigns I’ve been a part of, you’re lucky if you get 30 people on election day … to help you knock on doors, scrutineer polls.”

Bonesso says the decline can be seen across the political spectrum. “It’s not specific to any one party,” he said.

Laura Stephenson, a political science professor at Western University, says the trend may be explained by a shift away from traditional, party-centred political engagement — especially among younger Canadians.

“Young people tend not to engage in politics in the way that traditionally people have taken part in politics,” said Stephenson. “What we see instead is that young people do tend to take part in other types of political engagement like online discussion forums, protesting or boycotting.”

Stephenson also notes that some paid, non-partisan roles have been difficult to fill in recent years. For example, Elections Canada, which has long relied on older Canadians to staff polling stations, struggled to fill these roles during COVID. 

“They didn’t want to take on poll shifts,” said Stephenson. “And this caused havoc in some areas that were running pandemic elections.”

Thalmann, who served as deputy national campaign director for Justin Trudeau’s 2013 Liberal leadership bid, says the decline in political volunteerism may be due to misapprehensions of those on the sidelines.

“ Sometimes people think they need … special knowledge or expertise in politics, and they don’t,” he said. “Almost anyone can volunteer and do some aspect of the campaign, and most campaigns are very happy to train new volunteers to do various important tasks.”

Filling the gap

As volunteer numbers fall, campaigns are increasingly outsourcing work formerly done by unpaid supporters. 

Many campaigns now rely on paid canvassers, call centres and voter contact firms to supplement volunteer shortfalls, says Bonesso. 

“A lot of these tasks that have traditionally been done by volunteers, they just don’t have the manpower to do anymore,” he said. “They’re having to outsource it to companies like mine.”

Since campaigns remain subject to strict spending limits, paid labour now accounts for a larger share of overall campaign spending.

Bonesso says the nature of the outsourced work is also changing quickly.

“[Voters are] spending more time online. So a lot of campaigns are shifting their services towards hiring firms for the purpose of digital outreach, social media, creating real catered content, hiring professional videographers.”

Many firms are also offloading certain campaign tasks to new technologies.

“There are a lot of firms out there … that are looking at incorporating AI calling in some capacity,” said Bonesso.

But Thalmann says voter contact is still best done face to face.

“Nothing beats person-to-person conversations.”

Social consequences

The decline of political volunteerism could strip politics of its social dimension — an aspect that once prompted many people to participate.

“The more traditional forms of politics are actually social,” said Stephenson. “You might have people being excited about going to a campaign rally, or to help out at something or other because it’s actually just a social activity.”

“Even if they’re not staunch partisans, [people] might be willing to go along,” she said.

The shift of political engagement from doorsteps to desktops puts Canadians in a more hostile social environment, says Stephenson.

“People are a little bit less circumspect about what they say [online], and views tend to be more strongly stated,” she said. 

This shift could actually reinforce political disengagement, she says, noting “ polarization can be a turnoff” for those considering whether to become active in politics. 

Thalmann says he remains optimistic that people can be recruited to volunteer. But parties need to have an appealing message.

“You have to have a message that resonates with the target volunteers,” he said.

And for novices who are keen to participate, his advice is simple: dive in. 

“Don’t hesitate. Just show up and see how you can help.”