Greens growing in Muskoka
Pollster suggests riding gives party shot at second seat
PARRY SOUND, ONT. — Something Green is growing in the backyard of Doug Ford’s Muskoka cottage.
Four years ago in Guelph, the Ontario Green Party earned itself a historic first seat in the provincial legislature. Now, it’s looking to double its number on Thursday with a potential second seat in Parry Sound—Muskoka — a Progressive Conservative stronghold that houses party leader Ford’s own cottage.
According to Mainstreet Research, Green Party candidate Matt Richter is surging in the polls for the riding. If he wins, it would mean the upset of a seat which has remained blue since the riding’s creation in 1999.
“The chance of this riding going Green is so causative with change, and an overwhelming message to the people here that their concerns and frustrations are being met with solutions,” Richter said in an interview with the Toronto Star.
The rush of support for Richter is “great news for the Greens,” said Earl Washburn, senior analyst at EKOS Research. With no Liberal candidate in the riding, the centreleft vote is “coalescing behind the Greens,” he said.
Two weeks ago, the Liberals canned candidate Barry Stanley after the Toronto Star reported he had self-published a book which claimed, without evidence, that homosexuality is caused by infants “rebreathing” their own air after birth.
Alongside party leader Mike Schreiner, Richter campaigned in Parry Sound—Muskoka on Saturday to drum up more support for his battle to get to Queen’s Park. The campaign tour included stops in Bracebridge, Ont., the hometown of PC challenger and Mayor Graydon Smith.
Part of Richter’s rise stems from the “people power” offered by the Green volunteer team, Schreiner said at a stop in Parry Sound. Volunteers for the campaign waved signs and cheered the pair on, often punctuated by supportive honking and thumbs up from passing drivers.
One volunteer, Pam Moorhouse, said Richter’s momentum is palpable.
“The energy here is amazing. People really want change,” she said.
Schreiner is looking forward to the possibility he’ll have a seatmate in the legislature. More important, he said, is the message it sends to other parties.
“We need to do politics differently and we need to tone down the partisanship,” Schreiner said, adding he’s willing to work across party lines to collaborate on policies.
As of May 24, polling by Mainstreet Research showed the Greens leading with 39 per cent of the vote, over the PCs at 30 per cent. (This is in contrast to polling by The Signal, the Toronto Star’s poll aggregator, which shows the PCs as the “likely” winner of the riding.)
Éric Grenier, polls analyst at thewrit.ca, said the “stars are aligning” for the Greens to pick up another seat. The Greens emerged from the leaders’ debate with a bump in the polls, he said, and the lack of a Liberal candidate means that much of that vote share will head toward Richter.