Civility Wins: Voters Elect Respect
Marianne Meed Ward, founder of the Elect Respect pledge, wins a third term as mayor of Burlington, Ontario.
On October 26, Burlington voters returned Marianne Meed Ward to the mayor’s chair for a third term. She celebrated with family and supporters at the Burlington Legion, having won 25,025 votes, or 44 per cent, in a five-candidate race, according to unofficial results reported by The Hamilton Spectator.
But this was more than another election victory. Meed Ward is the founder of Elect Respect, a non-partisan pledge for safe, respectful and inclusive political spaces across Canada, challenging the harassment, intimidation and personal attacks that have become increasingly commonplace in political life.
In an era when political combat is often mistaken for strength, her re-election offers a timely reminder: civility and strong leadership are not opposites.
“Burlington chose positivity,” she told supporters. “We heard everyone out and we listened to every single person who had something to share with us.”
A campaign built on respect
In 2025, Meed Ward helped launch ElectRespect.ca. This fall, she asked Burlington voters to hold her to the same standard, campaigning on “steady, experienced leadership that gets results and treats people with respect.”
“The mayor’s role,” she said, “is to bring people together to get action and results for residents.”
At her campaign office opening, she was equally clear:
“Politics should not be a blood sport. Politics is a service, it is about getting good things done for the community.”
For Meed Ward, those words come from experience.
A pause in the room
Her turning point came when someone threatened to set her on fire if she attended a public meeting.
“I didn’t know who this person was that had threatened to set me on fire,” she told CBC News. “I didn’t know if they were in the room behind me.”
She soon learned she wasn’t alone. Women serving across Halton Region shared similar experiences of harassment and threats.
When she asked fellow elected officials whether they would encourage others to run for office, she recalled a troubling response.
“There was a pause and a silence in the room.”
“There was a time I wouldn’t have hesitated,” she said. “But there was a pause, because of the increasing toxicity, harassment, and violence.”
When good people hesitate to serve, democracy loses before a single vote is cast.
Meed Ward could have endured quietly. Instead, she brought women elected leaders together through Halton Elected Representatives (HER), a circle of mutual support that helped give rise to Elect Respect.
That choice—to act rather than endure—is where culture shaping begins.
Meed Ward tells this story in her guest essay, “Elect Respect,” in Lead with Civility: A Handbook for Uncivil Times, Part III, Cultivate Spaces Where Civility Thrives.
She has been a steadfast supporter of Kalen Academy’s work since its early days, including joining its flagship resiliency masterclass to share how knowing what you stand for keeps a leader grounded when criticism crosses into abuse.
Her leadership exemplifies one of the book’s central ideas: leaders are culture shapers.
Leaders as culture shapers
Culture is not fate. Culture is what we cultivate.
The word comes from the Latin cultura: to till, tend and care for.
We all have a role in tending the garden of community. But civic leaders, by the nature of their role, are its chief gardeners.
What they tolerate takes root. What they reward spreads. What they model becomes the pattern others imitate.
Meed Ward tends that garden from the chair.
“Right at the beginning of the meeting, I set the expectations for respectful dialogue,” she explains. “And I tell folks, you may hear things you don’t agree with.”
Disagreement belongs in democratic life. Disrespect does not have to.
🎥Watch: How to Keep Council Meetings Civil | Marianne Meed Ward (1.5 minutes)
But some harmful patterns run too deep for good example alone. When harassment and abuse become accepted as the price of public service, leaders must intervene.
The art of the civic intervention
Lead with Civility defines a civic intervention as:
a deliberate, principled act—or series of sustained acts—that interrupts harmful patterns of behaviour in civic life.
Its purpose is to restore trust, uphold justice and reinforce democratic norms when silence becomes complicity.
Drawing on the family intervention tradition, it names what is harming a community, establishes new boundaries and opens a path to healing and change.
A civic intervention might be a procedural ruling, a public stand against intimidation, a facilitated dialogue or a firm boundary with a colleague. What matters is the willingness to interrupt harm rather than accommodate it.
Elect Respect is a civic intervention in action.
Elect Respect: Changing the rules of the game
The pledge calls on signatories to reject harassment and personal attacks, focus debate on policies rather than personalities, speak out against abuse and help create an environment where people feel safe to serve.
“Too often, we only hear the loud, angry voices,” Meed Ward said at the launch. “The pledge provides a platform to the many more of us who value respect.”
“At least we can lead by example,” she has said. “When we model that, we’re going to ask for that in return.”
Elect Respect now counts 358 elected leaders, 192 candidates, 66 municipalities, 19 boards and 692 citizens among its signatories. Municipalities adopting its resolution range from small townships to Toronto and Vancouver. Business organizations have joined, too.
In 2025, Municipal World named Meed Ward its Mayor of the Year, recognizing, in part, her leadership on Elect Respect.
🎥Watch: Take the Elect Respect Pledge | Mayor Marianne Meed Ward (1 minute)
What her victory tells us
Elections turn on many local issues. Candidates who signed the Elect Respect pledge both won and lost in Ontario this fall. No single election proves that civility determines electoral success.
Burlington offers an important counterexample to the assumption that leaders must abandon civility to win.
Meed Ward named the toxicity in public life and challenged it. Taking a public stand for respect did not prevent her from winning another term.
Other leaders are making similar appeals. In Hamilton, Mayor-elect Keanin Loomis, also an Elect Respect signatory, campaigned on leadership “about building consensus.”
Earlier this month, British Columbia’s municipal elections offered further examples of candidates making civility and respectful leadership central to their campaigns, as explored in Voters Chose Candidates Who Lead with Civility.
These developments point to a larger shift: civic leaders are refusing to accept incivility as the inevitable price of public service. They are demonstrating that conviction need not come with contempt.
Across North America and beyond, civic leaders are taking an active role in turning the cultural tide. Through the growing Lead with Civility movement, they are bringing conversations about civil leadership into council chambers, workplaces and communities.
In Australia, Local Government Managers Association President Daniel Fletcher brought Lead with Civility to local government leaders, demonstrating how civic leaders can help renew the culture of public life.
The message is clear: civic culture is not something that simply happens to us. It is something we shape—and, when necessary, repair—together.
🎥Watch: Civic Leaders Speak on the Need to Lead with Civility (3 minutes)
Civility is the work
These developments remind us that one leader, joined by others, can challenge destructive cultural norms.
The tools are often ordinary: a conversation, a pledge, a council resolution, a willingness to say aloud what many feel privately.
That is what culture shapers do. They don’t wait for the culture to improve. They model the standard, confront what is harming the community and invite others to build something better.
Turning the cultural tide takes time. Civic renewal is not a single event but a series of sustained actions: a pledge signed and honoured, a resolution passed and upheld, a standard modelled until it becomes the norm.
Meed Ward closes her Lead with Civility essay with an invitation:
“Let’s change the rules of the game. Let’s choose respect. Let’s Elect Respect.”
In uncivil times, civility is the work. It is ours to do.
Become a Lead with Civility Ambassador
Lead with Civility: A Handbook for Uncivil Times offers practical wisdom and tools for leaders seeking to renew civic culture.
Become a Lead with Civility Ambassador and access complimentary resources to lead conversations in your council, organization or community, including presentation slides, speaking notes, reflection handouts and videos featuring civic leaders.
Coming October 29: Skills for Leading in Uncivil Times
Join Lead with Civility Ambassador Anne-Marie Cade for a Complimentary Online Session
How can civic leaders navigate difficult conversations, manage conflict constructively and preserve relationships when disagreement becomes challenging?
Kalen Academy invites civic and community leaders around the world to join Lead with Civility Ambassador Anne-Marie Cade—Australia’s civility expert, former Mayor of Glen Eira, award-winning lawyer, nationally accredited mediator, certified conflict coach and specialist in conflict resolution and leadership development.
A contributing guest essayist to Lead with Civility, Cade brings firsthand experience from the council chamber together with professional expertise in mediation, dispute resolution and helping leaders navigate difficult relationships. She is also the author of the forthcoming book Civility.
In this complimentary, interactive session, she will share practical strategies to help leaders de-escalate conflict, rebuild strained working relationships and navigate disagreement without undermining trust. Participants will also explore how to apply the Roadmap to Renewing Civic Culture in their own councils, organizations and communities.
Thursday, October 29, 2026 | Online
7:00–8:00 p.m. Melbourne/Sydney (AEDT)
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Election results cited are unofficial until certified by the City of Burlington.
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