OMA elections: Frequently asked questions

The immediate past president presides over all elections. Member engagement is a key priority and driver of the work of the president-elect, president and past president. Leveraging their work with the members, the past president is uniquely positioned to oversee the election and promote this democratic process.

The board of directors, as individuals and as a collective, exercises its duties of oversight, care, skill, diligence, integrity and loyalty to ensure effective, efficient and agile board performance that leads to OMA mission realization. Directors of the OMA govern with the goal of enhancing executive decision-making and improving the performance of the organization in serving its members.

Individual board directors do not represent the interests of any single constituency group, but the interests of all members.

The board duties include the following:  

• Provide oversight to the CEO’s management of OMA business and the integrity and effectiveness of all affairs of the OMA
• Exercise the care, diligence and skill that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in comparable circumstances, including attentive, thorough, and careful effort in executing its responsibilities
• Consistently be guided by high integrity and ethics when executing its responsibilities
• Act in good faith and demonstrate loyalty to the OMA and its membership
• Protect the best interests of the OMA as a whole and not the interests of any specific stakeholder entity or constituency

After the voting system closes on Feb. 2 at 2 p.m., the elections team will begin the process of extracting, verifying and preparing the results for publication. There are numerous steps required in this process, which also combines the acclamation results from the close of nominations into the final report. Later in the evening of Feb. 2, after the candidates have been notified, the general membership will be emailed to announce the availability of the results on the OMA Elections’ Voting & results page.

Any identified real or perceived conflicts of interest will be assessed per the board’s conflict of interest policy.

All candidates were asked to identify potential conflicts through the application form; LHH Knightsbridge will also identify potential conflicts through their application review and interview process.

Potential conflicts are referred to OMA Legal and are assessed on a case-by-case basis with mitigation recommendations identified and implemented as appropriate. Terms begin in May 2024, any recommendations will be in place prior to terms commencing.

Potential conflicts of interest, for self or a family member, include affiliation with another board, committee, organization, vendor, supplier, or any other party that has a direct or indirect interest in any business transaction or agreement with the OMA or payment of physicians which could result in benefit. It also includes involvement in any pending legal proceedings involving the OMA.

Learn more about OMA’s conflict of interest policy and procedures:

Board of directors code of conduct

Conflict of interest policy

Conflict of interest assessment tool

Conflict of interest disclosure statement checklist

The president-elect candidate town-hall was cancelled. 

After submitting a short self-nomination form, each nominee’s record will be reviewed against the eligibility criteria. To run for the board of directors or president-elect, physician members of the board must be eligible to hold office as outlined in the OMA bylaws and not have exceeded the six-year term limit for directors.

Nominees are confirmed as candidates after submitting a comprehensive application form, which includes a statement of interest, a skills matrix outlining their top three out of 11 competency areas, a statement on equity, diversity and inclusion, a CV, identification of potential conflicts of interest, personal references, acknowledgment to agree to social media checks, and to comply with all elections policies, procedures and guidelines. Board designations and previous board experience are considered an asset but are not required.

In order to ensure that every OMA member has an opportunity to showcase unique and diverse skills and experiences, all interested applicants who complete this process by the nomination deadline will become confirmed candidates.

Physician candidates are eligible to hold office as outlined in the OMA bylaws. They must:

• Be an OMA member
• Reside or practise in Ontario
• Not hold a certificate of registration that is suspended or has been revoked by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
• Have not surrendered, resigned, or not renewed their certificate of registration within one year of an investigation by the college or a suspension of their certificate by the college
• Not hold a certificate of registration that is restricted by the CPSO because of a finding of professional misconduct
• Have not been convicted of an indictable offence under the Criminal Code of Canada

The board chair will approach each sitting director whose current term is ending to confirm their plans for the upcoming election. In the case where the director holds a non-physician position and is interested in being re-elected, the director would be presented to the membership for a ratification vote, providing they meet the requirements outlined below:

• Has not exceeded the maximum term limit
• Continues to meet all eligibility requirements outlined in the OMA bylaws and board recruitment policy
• Meets or exceeds the average board performance determined through the annual board performance evaluation

In cases of a vacancy or where a sitting non-physician director fails to meet or exceed the average performance of the board. LHH Knightsbridge, one of Canada’s leading human capital companies, will continue to facilitate the independent candidate vetting process for the non-physician board director candidates. Potential candidates are assessed (using the same skills matrix as physician candidates) and the OMA conflict of interest policy/board code of conduct and eligibility requirements. Non-physician applicants must have ICD.D (Institute of Corporate Directors), C. Dir (Chartered Director), or an equivalent designation or experience. Shortlisted candidates will go through detailed vetting by LHH Knightsbridge, including reference checks, police record checks and social media checks. LHH Knightsbridge determines the final confirmed candidates.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are among the OMA’s core values. This includes building an association in which all experiences, views and perspectives are represented, especially throughout the governance structure.

Additional eligibility criteria were not added as a requirement for physician members to run for the OMA Board of Directors. As a member organization, ensuring all members can participate and support their fellow members is critical. Specific credentials and experiences could unintentionally create barriers and prevent skilled and talented members from serving their association.

To offer members a comprehensive understanding of candidate skills and experiences, the board director and president-elect candidates have provided a full information package this year. The wide breadth of information available allows members to learn about the candidate attributes that they value most in choosing the strongest board possible, whether those are clinical and geographic representation, personal statements, a commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, gender, professional experience, or any of a variety of technical and leadership skills.

Our governance transformation consultants SuccessMap developed the candidate skills matrix as part of the board director position description. The Governance and Nominating Committee (GNC) and the board approved the skills and shared them with Council. This was translated into the skills matrix included in the Knightsbridge application form. The 11 areas of competency candidates rate themselves on are board governance, strategic thinking, knowledge, leadership, transformative change, risk management, communication, financial/business, human resources, innovation and information technology.

ICD.D
Granted by the Institute of Corporate Directors, the ICD.D designation is a clear demonstration of a director’s commitment to practice and build on the skills and knowledge acquired through the Directors Education Program (DEP) at the University of Toronto. The DEP program is delivered in four three-day modules in cities across Canada. Modules are taught by leading faculty of prominent business schools, some of Canada’s most experienced directors, and leading governance experts.

C.Dir
The Chartered Director (C.Dir.) program is a directors education program. The Chartered Director (C.Dir.) program recognizes both sides of directorship — the “technical and structural” (rules-based) side and the “cultural” (principle-based and behavioural) side. Delivered in five modules, the program is designed for directors currently serving on corporate boards. It is also designed for candidates and senior executives who intend to serve on corporate boards or work closely with boards and want to master the structure and dynamics of corporate governance.

Enabling members to select a skills-based Board of Directors is one of the central components of the OMA’s governance transformation. It is critical for ensuring the diversity of skills and experience that would be necessary for members to elect the strongest board possible. To achieve this goal, and in alignment with best practice in board director recruitment, candidates for both the physician and non-physician board positions are required to submit a comprehensive package of information, including written assessments of their skills and experience in three of 11 competency areas. These skills assessments will be discussed during the candidate’s interview with LHH Knightsbridge. Knightsbridge will provide a short skill summary of each candidate coming out of the interview process.

Candidates can be exempt from the reference check process, providing they have had an OMA elections reference check completed within the past 18 months or have participated in the OMA-initiated board director evaluation within the past 12 months.

During the 2023-2024 OMA election period, social media checks took place for all physician and non-physician board candidates.

These checks are limited to only publicly available information and specifically focus on illegal activity, violent conduct, sexually explicit material, intolerance — all content that would be inconsistent with the OMA’s stated mission, vision and values. These checks do not search political opinions, positions, and views about the OMA, the health-care system, the role of physicians in the health-care system, etc.

The fiduciary role of the OMA Board of Directors makes it essential all candidates are assessed as consistently as possible. The social media check includes director and president-elect candidates.

Concerns raised because of social media checks for potential non-physician candidates will result in those individuals being removed from consideration.

Concerns raised because of social media checks of potential physician candidates will need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis with the candidate and OMA legal department to determine any impacts on a candidate’s eligibility to hold office.

Founded in 1974, Britton Management Profiles Inc. was the first reference checking company in Canada and is recognized as the leading standard within the industry providing a wide range of employee background and reference check services. Britton Management Profiles complies with Canada’s Personal Information Protection & Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and is registered under the Consumer Reporting Act in Ontario. Its membership in the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) demonstrates its commitment to professionalism, while maintaining knowledge of industry trends, and extends reach to nearly all countries around the world.

Members are invited to vote for three physician board directors, one non-physician board directors and any of their elected constituency leader positions (e.g., district or section officers) that require a vote this year. When a member logs into the voting system, they will see all the polls they are eligible to vote in. 

Members may visit the OMA Elections web page at any time during the voting period to access the link to the BigPulse voting platform. Each member has a confidential voting account they can access with their OMA login credentials (OMA number or the email address on file with their OMA record, and password) via OneLogin. The BigPulse system will direct each voter through the polls they are eligible to vote in.

Voting is open. Vote any time during the four-week voting period of Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, to Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. A Notice of Voting was emailed to voting members when the polls opened on Jan. 8, 2024.

All OMA members residing in Ontario are eligible to vote. As per the elections procedure, the voter list will be frozen on Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. at the close of nominations. There are more than 43,000 eligible voters, each with a confidential voting account set up in their name.

Ranked ballot voting is the method of voting that was previously used in the president-elect referendum and election of assembly directors at the former Council. It gives a more complete picture of how each voter feels about all of the candidates and ensures each voter’s rankings still carry weight, even if their most preferred candidates don’t get elected.

Voters will be asked to numerically rank as many candidates as they wish on their ballot, where “1” is their most preferred candidate. Voters need to rank the candidates and submit their ballots.

After voting closes, “rounds” of calculations are conducted within BigPulse, the voting system. In each round, candidates are confirmed as elected if they receive more than a minimum quota^[*] of votes. Any votes received by a successful candidate more than the quota are redistributed to other candidates according to the voter’s next ranked choice. If no candidates exceed the quota of votes in a given round, the candidate with the least votes is removed from the running and their votes are redistributed to each voter’s next ranked candidate. This is repeated until all vacancies are filled. These calculations take place automatically according to BigPulse’s algorithms and the quota level ensures only as many candidates as there are vacancies will be elected.

^[*]Quota = total votes cast / (number of available seats plus one)

All constituency leaders and the president-elect and the new board directors will begin their terms at the close of the annual OMA AGM on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

Based on feedback and discussions with members, the president-elect and board candidates are allowed to promote the elections and engage members through their own networks in line with specific board-approved guidelines. More information to come regarding the election communication guidelines.

An all-board director and president-elect candidate meeting will be scheduled following the close of nominations to learn about the process, allowed activities, key deadlines and address any questions.

The OMA will ensure all president-elect and board director candidates have a comprehensive application package available for members to review online, including statements, skills assessment, CVs and links to LinkedIn accounts. We are confident this will provide members with sufficient information to make an informed decision once the polls open on Jan. 8, 2024.

Constituency leaders have access to OMA-generated contact lists for their group. During the election period, there will be a hiatus on generating these lists. This is in response to member concerns about receiving unsolicited emails from candidates. During this period, any member communication should be facilitated through the OMA. Please reach out to your OMA staff lead for more details on the process.

As part of the OMA’s governance transformation, the OMA committed to conduct a review of all its constituency groups, including districts, sections, Medical Interest Groups, fora, and branch societies, to ensure groups are aligned with new governance requirements and that appropriate structures and supports are in place to achieve mandates.

The sections were the second constituency group to undergo a review, following the districts, as part of the transformation commitment. In September 2023, the OMA board approved a refreshed leadership composition for the sections, as outlined in the new section charter.

The new charter for OMA sections includes a new section leadership model designed to strengthen and streamline section governance in a consistent and equitable way while maintaining flexibility. The charter includes standard position descriptions and terms, clarifies section governance accountabilities, and introduces new member-at-large roles  that will be filled through this coming single election period, among other key governance items.

Some positions, such as the tariff chair role have been modified as part of the review. As most sections no longer have a "tariff committee" to chair, the position has been renamed tariff lead. In addition to the name change, the tariff lead may be appointed by the section, for a three-year term, through an expression of interest process. This appointment process will take place after the 2024 single election period and can be the first order of business for the new section executive. Incumbent tariff chairs may stay in the role until appointments take place in 2024.

As part of the section review and ongoing discussion with the SGFP executive around its governance transformation, the SGFP positions up for election will be uploaded to the nominations system on Nov. 16, 2023.

The majority of district positions were elected to two-year terms via the 2023 single election period or the 2023 by-election and are therefore not up for election in 2024.

The SGFP has taken the opportunity provided within the flexibility of the new OMA section charters to make changes to their executive composition. The opening of the nomination period for the SGFP positions has been delayed until Nov. 16, 2023, in order to allow time to communicate the SGFP executive composition changes to the broader SGFP membership. Nominations for SGFP positions will be open from Nov. 16, 2023, to Dec. 14, 2023, allowing the SGFP positions to still be included in the single election period when voting opens for all positions on Jan. 8, 2024.

The new section charter introduces standardized term lengths and limits for all executive positions to align with current OMA policy. The term of office for the section chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer and member-at-large positions is two years and will commence immediately at the conclusion of the OMA AGM. The term of office of the tariff lead is three years and will commence immediately following the appointment (where the position is appointed) or at the conclusion of the OMA AGM (where the position is elected). The term of office of the past chair is a minimum of two years, or as determined by the section executive, and will commence immediately after the OMA AGM if a new chair is elected.

A member, after serving in a position on the section executive for ten consecutive years, is no longer eligible to be elected in that position on that section for a period of two years. A member may not serve on the section executive for more than 20 years in total.