CAN MATT RICHTER & GREEN PARTY UPSET INCUMBENT TORIES?
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
BRACEBRIDGE — A student in Matt Richter’s class said she wouldn’t vote for him.
And wouldn’t encourage others to do so either.
“I don’t want to lose you as a teacher,” the little girl at Riverside Public School told the Green candidate.
Fortunately for Richter, a lot of other parents, grandparents, high school students, teachers, young adults, families, seniors and riding residents environmentally-friendly to the Parry Sound-Muskoka provincial candidate will be casting ballots again for him in Ontario’s next general election.
Richter believes some voters will be fed-up Tories concerned about Premier Doug Ford.
Soft Conservatives who may have voted for the retiring MPP Norm Miller out of loyalty and who may be ready for a change after his six terms over 21 years.
‘It’s Time,’ say the Green signs.
Or maybe: “It’s about time?”
The Greens are not conceding the contest to Graydon Smith and the Conservatives.
Richter, who has been carrying the Green colours since 2007, said of Miller’s retirement: “We are actually finding the door is wide open.
“I think people feel very comforted knowing that Matt Richter is going to carry on the legacy that Norm Miller left down at Queen’s Park in terms of how to act. And that’s with dignity and integrity. Norm Miller and I respected each other and never attacked each other politically. We’ve never undermined each other.”
This will be Richter’s fifth run.
And this time, according to his party’s internal polling, 2022 is his time.
“We’re excited, we think Matt can win this riding,” said Leader Mike Schreiner. “We’re all in on making it happen. Our polling shows Matt’s in a vary strong position.”
Both think Parry Sound-Muskoka could be another big breakthrough for them with Richter their best shot at a second seat.
After all, Schreiner went from a little over 20 per cent of the vote in 2014 to 45 per cent in 2018 to be elected in Guelph as the first and only Green MPP in the Ontario legislature.
“The momentum I felt going in to the 2018 election, when another long-time incumbent wasn’t running … is the exact same momentum I feel in Parry Sound-Muskoka right now.”
He said just in knocking on doors here Saturday — and the last few months he’s been here helping Richter’s campaign — “I know when I feel momentum. I know when I feel a community is ready to do something special and to make history. And to do something a little bit different. Maybe go past the community comfort zone, because they know that we can build something better for Parry Sound-Muskoka.
“We can actually think about it, dream about it. A community where people have an affordable place to call home. A community that’s actually going to address the climate crisis and ensure that we create jobs and career opportunities for people in the new climate economy.”
He said a “two-and-a-half-year wait time for young people to access mental health services is completely unacceptable. And we can fix that. We can fix that through honesty, integrity and good public policy that prioritizes what’s good for this community over what’s good for Matt Richter, the Green Party or sound bytes.
“You’d be amazed what can happen when you have an MPP who doesn’t have to toe the party line.”
Schreiner said the Ford government is “more focussed on building highways and generating sprawl in the GTA than it is on meeting the needs of maybe what other communities need.”
He said this riding and his are similar in same way that the long-time incumbent didn’t run for re-election in Guelph.
Richter, a teacher and former small business owner, who counted 20 per cent of the vote in 2018 expects a huge increase will land him at Queen’s Park after June 2.
He’d like half the vote, but thinks a 40 per cent count would pull it off.
Last time out he had 9,438 votes (Miller won with 22,662). Richter’s previous three runs in 2007, 2011 and 2014 saw Green votes of 4,557 (12.48%), 3,251 (9.06%) and 7,484 (19.34 %).
Under Richter, Greens have gone from fourth place twice, to third twice — ahead of the Liberals in 2018 — but always trailing the NDP.
Saturday afternoon in a community room at the Bracebridge Sportsplex — festooned with Green signs, supporters sporting trillium green pins and walls painted the party’s colours — Schreiner and Richter talked excitedly in a town hall about what they and the Greens could do if they doubled their seat count.
Two, two MPPs in one party.
Schreiner said afterwards in an interview that Ontarians have been “impressed” with what he as its only Green MPP has been able to accomplish.
“Imagine what more Green MPPs could do for quality of life here in Parry Sound–Muskoka and across Ontario,” Schreiner said in a release later in the day. “We can build a more affordable, caring and Green Bracebridge, Parry Sound-Muskoka and Ontario. Where everyone has an affordable place to call home, an affordable way to get around, and access to affordable care.”
“The time for change is now,” Richter said. “Our team has talked to over 20,000 voters in the riding already, and we are hearing over and over again that the status quo is not working for so many people in Parry Sound–Muskoka. Half measures on addressing the housing and climate crises won’t cut it.”
Like Kato and the Green Hornet, Richter and Schreiner have worked tirelessly close since before and moreso after the last election. This is the fourth time they’ve appeared here together since last July.
You’ll be seeing more of them at your doors as the party believes Richter could actually upset Conservative Graydon Smith who is the candidate to beat with the Liberals and NDP no-shows with candidates so far this campaign run. The election writ is yet to be dropped, but has to be at least 28 days.
While Schreiner wouldn’t admit to Richter being a protégé, it would be safe to say the leader is a mentor to the budding would-be parliamentarian.
What’s the dif?
Increasingly they’re the faces of the small party in many areas of Ontario.
Last week they appeared virtually — in Toronto and Huntsville — as Schreiner unveiled their mental health platform mere days before NDP Leader Andrea Horwath did likewise the same day with similar goals if not features.
“As a teacher, it’s frustrating to see children identified as needing mental health support at a young age, and not receiving it for several years,” Richter, the party’s education critic added online.
At the Sportsplex Saturday — preaching to a converted crowd of almost125 receptive supporters — Richter said “We’re poised to win this election” and make Schreiner’s “life a little bit easier at Queen’s Park.”
He said the “momentum is building — it’s surging.”
No longer does Richter need to introduce himself at doors. He’s a known political quantity.
In Rosseau recently he recounted how he was instantly recognized at the home of woman who welcomed him when she saw his Green sign and said she was going to vote for him.
She ushered him to her living room where her friends and neighbours regularly meet for a coffee klatch and he was warmly welcomed. He ended up having a “coffee date” with five ladies — and one skeptical retired nurse from Toronto.
Richter told her how nurses deserved more.
The host chimed in: “See Ethel, that’s why we should be voting Green.”
Richter said “at the beginning of this campaign (“six months ago”), we asked a simple question that was going to be the driving question behind what we were going to be doing: “What does the future of what you want to live in look like?
“And when you ask that question and let it sink in, we follow that up with ‘What type of politics is going to bring those policies, to deliver that future?’”
Richter said from what’s he’s heard from “you at the door” and “in schools, at health care settings and trades centres … the words that best capture that are trust, authenticity, honesty and integrity.
“Those are the key words that are so desperately missing in politics these days. But those are the words they know that when they sign up to work for the Green party or to vote for the Green party, or to live in a riding that is represented by the Green party. They know that those words are at the core of how to get the job done. To lead the way to getting things done.
“I think you can all agree that the time is now. That we live in a riding where people are truly proud to vote Green,” Richter said to loud, sustained applause.
He said “For the first time in my experience — going back 15 years to 2007 — is what I and my volunteers are seeing at the door is that (voters) are ready. There is no need to be explaining what climate change is. There is no need to say our personal support workers and nurses deserve a fair wage. There is no need in this riding of ours to say that the Northlander needs to come back. Or we need real action to protect and restore our water and nature.
“They already get it. They say ‘Matt, let’s just get you down there.’ And it not just about Matt Richter — it’s about us (Greens) and what we’re doing.”
Richter says “My job is getting in to Queen’s Park,” where “we can see some real honesty and integrity brought down in to politics that’s going to make life better here in Parry Sound-Muskoka — definitely.”
Richter said that for Schreiner it “would make his life slightly, slightly easier if I were to get in and help him take some of the workload off of his shoulders.”
It would mean more debate time for Greens, time to prepare private members bills and “a more reasonable voice.”
Since being elected, Schreiner has gotten two private member’s bills passed, including protecting electric vehicle drivers and declaring August emancipation month.
In being introduced, Schreiner said “I can not think of a better champion to be a strong voice for Parry Sound-Muskoka than Matt Richter.
“When someone runs for the Greens they don’t choose the easy road — they choose the right road. If Matt wanted the easy ticket to a seat at Queen’s Park, he wouldn’t have chosen to run for the Greens in 2007.
“But he chose to run for a party that’s gonna prioritize people over politics; that’s gonna prioritize good public policy over partisan self interest; that’s going to prioritize standing up and fighting for their neighbours and their constituents over the easy road to Queen’s Park. And that’s the integrity that Matt Richter has.”
Schreiner added that with Richter elected it would have meant two Greens instead of just him being the lone MPP “voting against Doug Ford’s licence plate gimmick.”
Schreiner said two Greens would fight for more health care funding, mental health services and affordable housing in the riding.
Driving home the point, he said the $1.1 billion Ford — “with the support of the Liberals and NDP — took out of the provincial budget to have an election gimmick on these licence plates, to me is exactly why we need more Greens.
“We’re gonna show up at Queen’s Park and vote for what’s good for people. To have the courage to vote for what’s right for people. Be honest with people about what the implications are of policies that are being made at Queen’s Park and how it affects the services you can receive right here in Parry Sound-Muskoka.
“It’s amazing what you can get done when you set politics aside.”
Schreiner says he’s been able to raise issues that other parties don’t with his speaking time in the legislature, which last week included three times (an average) when he got to stand up and ask questions of the government.
He said he debates on every bill and is vice chair of the general government committee and active at the committee level as well.
“Being an independent MPP does have a lot of opportunities to make a meaningful difference.”
Schreiner also said he was the only MPP to vote against the government’s plan to support more pipelines, “specifically Line 5, which drags the Great Lakes. It would surely be nice to have had another MPP down there supporting me on that one.
“Imagine how much more effective we would be with two seats, including Matt Richter in that equation … doing politics differently.”
The MPP said he has passed two private member’s bills in three years.
“And I know Matt can do the same thing, because we’re willing to work across party lines.”
Schreiner said he criticizes the Ford government all the time for “their atrocious record on dismantling climate action; and on undermining so many of the environmental protections that are so essential to protecting us — from flooding and protecting our drinking water, our farm land and so many of the places we love in our communities.”
While he didn’t comment publicly on the new federal carbon tax, afterwards he told MuskokaTODAY.com “I want people to get their carbon rebate cheques.”
Schreiner did call for affordable electric vehicles and e-bikes, which would include tax breaks for new and used EVs.
“They’re so much cheaper to drive.”
He also supports electric transit buses throughout the riding.
And of course Green are calling for the return of the Northlander.
Gillian Schadlock, 28, likes that idea. The recently new resident to Huntsville drove down, but said she’d prefer to have travelled using clean, green transportation, which is important to her and other young voters, she believes.
Richter is beating the bushes from Sundridge to Severn Bridge trying to strengthen the party’s image as environmentalists, while at the same time trying to dispel the image of a one-trick pony party.
That was the concern of at least a couple of people in the audience who sought clarity in the town hall Q&A.
Schreiner said Greens “know our communities need leadership on variety of connected issues,” citing what he calls the “most comprehensive” policy on housing that will help the climate by building more affordable, connected communities. And its new mental health strategy this week.
A woman near the front of the audience said for a lot of people who believe going Green is the right thing, for people with less means their vote may have to find a home with the party that will win over the province.
Michael Appleby, of Bracebridge, who works in the biodiversity field and is concerned about “misguided” local development on Lake Muskoka, asked about the party’s other policies besides the environment, including its business plans.
Schreiner said the government “infuriated” him by allowing big box stores to remain open while shutting down independent entrepreneurs during the pandemic.
“I just couldn’t believe the lack of understanding how small businesses operate and the vital role they play in the community. So never again.”
He said “moving forward, the biggest economic opportunity that exists right now in Ontario — with the right policies and political will to do that — is the climate economy. That is where global capital is going. If you look everywhere it is going in to electrify everything.”
And “Ontario is perfectly positioned to have a mining to manufacturing strategy. … We can be the global leader.
Schreiner claims Sudbury has “become the mining capital of the world.”
Appleby said it’s that “confluence of events” that is creating a “perfect storm” and could propel the Greens to victory.
In response to another woman’s query about the Greens’ LTC position, Schreiner said “We need to completely re-imagine the way we care for elders and the way we age in Ontario.”
He said his party has been “very strong advocates for additional funding for home and community care. … And also that we pay the people who provide those services living wages.”
He said that care should be “public not private,” which drew more loud applause.
“Fair wages and benefits,” including for those PSWs not paid travel time between each of their home clients.
Schreiner is also a “huge supporter” of co-housing, which lets seniors share expenses under one private roof, a positive local model attempted with challenging and limited trial success at least in Bracebridge.
He said he has worked across party lines with an MPP who was kicked out of the Conservative caucus and who now has a bill in front of the legislature that would ban municipalities from declare co-housing illegal — as he said a lot have done.
“I don’t understand why. It’s such a great option for seniors.”
He cited other countries, particularly the Netherlands, where he claims most people live in such house and said “it’s a much better way of aging at home and doing it in way that you’re not facing loneliness and isolation. It’s where you have your own independent space and shared space where you can have a community around you as well.”
Schreiner acknowledged “we do know that there will always be people who will have higher levels of complexity — like dementia — that will require more care than can be provided in people’s homes.”
He said the need for LTCs will still be there, but they “need to be treated as homes, not institutions.”
That means one person per room and guaranteed minimum four hours a day of care.
“Our elders deserve that now,” not in 2025 as the Ford government says it will do.
Schreiner also said LTC residents deserve “decent food,” which means increasing the meal allowance.
“It’s the No. 1 concern of residents,” he said.
“We owe it to elders and their families after the tragedy of COVID to never allow something like that to happen again.”
Richter said he’s had larger political rallies other years during elections, but he called Saturday’s encouraging — especially in Bracebridge, the Tory heart of the riding.
He said the Greens’ message is “resonating” with existing and new riding residents.
The party’s policies, he says, “stay current with the issues of the day. And I’ve had four more years of experience travelling the riding. I’ve always committed to travelling the riding between elections and making sure I’m hearing and listening to people and what the issues are to people.”
Richter said “people are also progressing and moving along and wanting more action” on problems like climate change.
“Let’s be honest over the past 15 to 20 years, the same old problems have been returning with the same attempted solutions. And where does that land us — the status quo.
“That’s been with a riding that’s been represented provincially by the PCs.”
Richter said Greens are “absolutely” more than environmentalist alone.
“We represent everyone.”
With 26 municipalities in the riding there are a myriad of concerns Greens must attempt to address viewing them all through a green lens.
Richter says Conservatives have lost any semblance of green in their party, given that they’ve “gutted the environmental protections in Ontario. They ended the environmental commissioner’s office,” one of the first things Ford did.
The Green candidate also said governments can do many things that don’t cost money like communication and consulting.
“I think what really frustrates people with the current Ford government is that so many things have been done during the pandemic, and before, where the actual people, the frontline workers weren’t consulted. Same in the restaurant business.
“Same even at the Ontario Fire College” in Gravenhurst.
Richter said local fire chiefs he’s spoken to — whose firefighters trained there — “didn’t necessarily disagree that it was bad idea to close it. But they were on the fence.”
He said “what really annoyed them was there was no consultation. There words are that they were on a conference call, expecting to hear some business as usual talk, and all of a sudden they’re given this announcement. No consultation.
“And even if there is a better way of doing it, good government involves open and clear communication.”
Richter called it “irresponsible.”
The same happened, he said, with teachers over when schools were closing and reopening.
“There was a hashtag “#lasttoknow.”
Richter did offer a “shout out to Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau for all they did at the beginning of the pandemic,” by “getting out of their comfort zone and being politically non-partisan.”
But after that he said of Ontario “What we see was an epic failure, their lack of communication. They would make an announcement about an announcement and then show up late for that announcement.
“Parents with children going back to school had no consistency or expectations and they were left scrambling for day care because they didn’t know one way or the other and didn’t know till they heard it on Twitter.”
On LTCs Richter said the tragic COVID deaths are a “reflection” of prior cuts, poor infrastructure and a system without “eyes on the problem to diagnose it.” And having the “foresight” that allowed PSWs not to be paid a fair wage “or honouring nurses.” It was “very foreseeable that a crisis was gonna happen eventually. And in this case the pandemic sped up the time frame of a crisis.”
Miller did advocate for more care time in homes, at least once taking a local petition to Queen’s Park — and a government with a majority that could have taken action, said Richter.
“Maybe they weren’t listening to Norm.
“I think this riding is frustrated with the lack of respect that Ford gave Norm Miller. In this riding I think there’s a lot of people disappointed with the transition of Norm Miller leaving and there being a lack of open process of how the new candidate was going to be nominated.”
Richter said in November 2020 he was nominated in a vote online after there was some interest in contesting his nomination, which never materialized in the end.
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