‘NO EXCUSES,’ SAYS RICHTER, ONLY ‘DISAPPOINTMENT, FRUSTRATION’ THIS MORNING AFTER LOSS
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — T&T blew up Ontario last night.
Trump and tariffs turned a Tory win in to a Green loss here in this riding even in a tiny way.
Reached this morning Matt Richter for a post-election interview, he MuskokaTODAY.com that “disappointment and frustration was a better way to put it,” after another healthy loss to MPP Graydon Smith.
“There were times where people were talking about the tariffs and Trump. And perhaps what the premier’s comments were. But the majority of people I was talking to at the door and on phone calls,” said Richter, “was people just very irritated and frustrated with a provincial government that is prioritizing wasteful spending of $100 billion now for the tunnel under the 401. Meanwhile there is lack of action toward any meaningful affordable housing in our riding. There’s a doctor shortage in our riding. And there’s a crisis in education.”
Specifically, said the teacher who is on leave, “over in Parry Sound where there needs to be more media attention on this imposed K-12 school going against the wishes of the community. That is a fundamentally flawed part of our democracy in our riding when literally no one I speak to in Parry Sound is in favour for having a K-12 school being imposed on them. And the logic, the financial logic, the social logic of what’s in the best interests of the students, the families and the staff is all to keep the MacDougall public school open as a K-6 school. And to have the (old) high school be the modified 7-12 school for the area. And that’s the wishes for the community.
“So I really hope so for the residents over in Parry Sound. For some, that was their No. 1 issue.”
Smith and the government should give it “action and reversal of decision made. Just do it.”
In Muskoka Richter found “for those who had the hospital in Bracebridge and Huntsville as their No. 1 issue that was a priority for them. And for the rest of the riding, for everybody in our riding it was the feeling of being taken for granted. And that there was a lack of fairness for how our priorities are not being met. That’s what was really on people’s minds.”
Asked about the Ford government’s fixation on Toronto and the GTA, Richter, said: “When you look at the billions — exceeding over $100 billion — spent on frivolous, unnecessary projects in the GTA, it makes one wonder why living up here we were being ignored when we have legitimate and real concerns that are going unanswered. When it comes to infrastructure, health care, education, affordable housing, lack of increased meaningful ODSP. I know they will say there was an ODSP increase, but it doesn’t match the recommendation of doubling it.”
As deputy Green leader and not winning the election, will this free up Richter to continue speaking more on those issues outside Queen’s Park?
“Well, always between elections whether I’m deputy leader or a hopeful candidate, I’ve always stayed involved and advocated for the people. As un-elected member of provincial Parliament it’s surprising how often I can get people reaching out to me to follow-up on their issues and concerns within the riding. But also outside because I was past education critic.”
A six-time candidate, Richter understands more about how government works and the confusion surrounding politics outside the province and following in a federal election.
“I think we need to do better as a society to ensure we understand what provincial elections have the capacity to make change of.
“So in this case there was a lot misinformation and or misguided hope towards what this provincial election can do. When people were wondering how this election could help influence the federal election. So what I’m getting at is there were a tremendous number of people out there that were led to believe that their provincial vote was somehow going to impact the federal election.”
Could Richter now be interested in a federal run for the Green Party of Canada?
“I will always stay committed to provincial politics.”
Last night Richter watched the results swiftly come in with his team from their campaign office in Huntsville, before he received a tearful reception from supporters at the nearby Canvas Brewery just after 10 p.m.
In the first poll result aired at 9:05 p.m. he led 21-14 over Smith, with 6 votes for the Liberals and 2 for the NDP.
By 9:18 p.m. with half the votes counted, Smith took the lead 10,795-10,596 and it kept growing.
Fifteen minutes later the PC was predicted to win and declared by some media.
How did it feel winning then having it slide away?
“Until the final poll comes in there is no lead of any kind because one poll isn’t prioritized more than another.”
Richter wouldn’t commit to running a seventh time in four years or say if he is returning to resume teaching school again at Riverside in Huntsville after taking leave from his job in December.
“I’m gonna keep all my options open. Not too sure. A lot was dependent on the outcome of the election. We’ll see, there’s a lot of options out there.
“Then depending what happens after this election to the next provincial election, that’s something I will take time to consider.”
And with a new prime minister in nine days and tariff talks “federal to federal,” Richter says “I’m not sure why the conversation keeps going back to Doug Ford who has never sat down with Donald Trump in the first place.”
Asked if he thought he could have hit harder to win, Richter replied:
“I think we pushed back against the misinformation with mailing out and with social media. But at the same time it’s a game that I didn’t want to lower my standards to. I just feel disappointed that there was so much deliberate misleading information that had no merit. And no matter how much we pushed back. How that impacted the election I don’t know.
“I’m not going to make any excuses. I’m not going to point fingers as to if it ended up costing us this election. That’ll never be known. And it’s not a healthy outlook to take.
“But at the end of the day I know we ran a full campaign on honesty and integrity. And it wasn’t until we needed to push back that we decided to push back aggressively to dispel the misinformation and clarify the record to be very open and transparent.
“The one thing that we did from the beginning was give the people a fully costed platform that anybody had access to all the time. We were the only party to offer a fully-costed platform from the beginning of the election.”
Did and do people still see Greens as green environmentalist only?
“Here in Parry Sound-Muskoka people see the PCs as a reckless-spending party wanting to prioritize $100 billion on a foolish tunnel under the 401 and see Matt Richter and the Green Party as the party that’s going to speak up for action on affordable housing, bringing doctors and nurses and health care professionals to our health care system. And in education reverse the cuts so student can reach their potential.”
Richter said “since 2022 (Smith) has known about those issues. And I hope as mayor he also would have known that, because these issues have been front and centre in our riding since I started running in 2007. And it really became more of an issue with each election as it just progressively worsened to the point where we’re in an affordable housing crisis over these past easily 10 years.”
He believes Smith and Ford haven’t stood up for residents of the riding, across Northern Ontario and the rest of the province.
“We have the lowest housing starts in all of Canada when you look province to province. We live in a riding where the average one-bedroom apartment starts at $1,500-$1,600 per month rent. We have everybody sharing this is their No. 1 concern when it comes to housing and the lack of affordable housing. And that impacts the ability of people to afford to live here. Which impacts our economy and health care. And just our overall health and quality of life.”
On jobs Richter said “it works both ways. It’s very difficult to work up here if you can’t find affordable housing. Or find affordable apartment rent, let alone a house. And at the end of the day all your money is going to the apartment to your rent or to the mortgage, and maybe groceries and gas. That leaves you with no disposable money to put back in to the local economy.”
In a further shot at MNR minister Smith and his handling his forestry portfolio, Richter added “during this time our forestry sector has taken a huge hit in Northern Ontario without any support. Our forestry sector is begging for guidance and support at the provincial level.”
He said insurance is another issue he’s heard about from “among so many businesses looking for assistance with insurance and having meaningful support to make ends meet.
“And of course help for our tourism, which needs healthy forests and lakes.”
He says “the message needs to be sent that the provincial government it needs to reinvest in meaningful staffing levels at the Conservation Authority level and MNR level to ensure that our lakes are having the best oversight. The best science to ensure that they’re going to be healthy moving forward.
“And our food and farming sector needs to have the support at the provincial level to re-invigorate it.”
Richter said he and the Greens had tremendous support in Huntsville and that the hospital issue may or may not have played a big role in results there.
He also wasn’t sure if Smith’s support there led to his celebration at the Old Mill Restaurant there rather than at the Kirrie Glen Golf Course in Bracebridge where PCs watched Smith’s initial 2022 win.
“You’d have to ask him.”
Richter was generally grateful for more votes.
“You know I guess from the number of ballots cast in my direction, it’s definitely encouraging. But anything short of a victory was not gonna be what I was after.
And it wasn’t a victory for me, it was to go down to Queen’s Park to be voice the people of Parry Sound-Muskoka. And a way of literally doing politics that puts people ahead of the party. And rejects the idea that you have to take marching orders from a leader. Or from the party itself.”
Richter said he, Schreiner and Aislinn Clancy, who won only the party’s second general election seat — along with their teams — can take credit for the Greens’ double win.
Does that mean if Richter opts for another “option” and another Green candidate emerges, could that person succeed in 2019 where didn’t?
“Absolutely! I think this riding is ready at any point to go Green. But right now, as I said at the beginning, this riding is clearly a ‘none of the above’ riding. You know if you just look at straight numbers, the majority of the eligible voters voted for none of the above.”
While the Liberals, NDP and other candidates accounted for more than 5,000 votes, which could have gone to either the Greens or Conservatives, Richter said another key factor in the outcome were the 45 per cent of people who didn’t vote at all.
“Certainly. To have gotten all the votes from the people who didn’t vote …. There were a lot of votes there. When you look at the map and you look at how many people didn’t vote. That’s where the votes were.
“People who want to vote Liberal or NDP that’s their choice. And they got out and voted.
“But clearly we didn’t do enough to get out the people who chose not to vote. Something wasn’t there for us that made it appealing enough to take the time to get out and vote.”
Was it weather?
“For sure, for some. The mail-in ballot wasn’t getting to the country or to where some people were out of the country or province. And perhaps for some weather and getting to the polls was a problem. I don’t know how that was for some. But maybe that was a factor why some didn’t get out. And then other people perhaps, and I’m speculating, they didn’t get a voter card. There were some people who felt they had to have a voter card with them to go vote.”
And what’s in the immediate future for Richter after 28 days of hard slugging?
“I’d say it’s been 17 years of hard-slugging. But the 28 days, I started doing this full-time since the beginning of December with my leave from teaching. It’s very important for people to remember that this election was being speculated on well before any threat of tariffs and Donald Trump. This has been on the radar since last summer. Because Doug Ford then wasn’t ruling out an early election.”
While the PCs lost one seat and NDP lost seats to the Liberals who regained party status, Richter made sure to reiterate the Greens doubled their seat count.
“We gained a seat, because the last election Mike Schreiner got in (again) and Aislinn Clancy didn’t get in until she won a by-election. So we gained a seat there (last night).”
After 17 years and six election campaigns, Richter is well schooled in Parry Sound-Muskoka life, earning him the equivalent of a BA, masters and PhD in Northern rural politics.
“Perhaps an honorary degree — but I don’t want to take anything away from those people who actually do have a doctorate in poli-sci from university.
“But no, we’ll see what happens. And kind of keep all options open.”
In the meantime he’s waiting for one more vote — by students in grades 5-12, “I believe is next week.
“It doesn’t always go the same way as the general election. It sometimes goes differently.
“But for the student votes in the riding I’ve always won in every election.”
After seeing his name on school ballots multiple times, it’s likely many first-time voters may have voted for Richter yesterday.
Just not enough for him to win.
Hear my 30-minute unedited morning interview with Richter below.
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