Green Party of Ontario Leader, MPP Mike Schreiner says he believes Premier Doug Ford is unpopular in the province right now, and that will hurt Conservative efforts to gather votes in the federal election.
Schreiner was in North Bay this week for the Nipissing - Temiskaming nomination of Alex Gomm.
See: Green Party picks its local candidate
He says the cuts over the last year will have a direct impact on the federal election.
"There are a lot of people in Ontario that are saying 'I don't want to vote for Doug Ford and I'm not going to vote for Andrew Sheer because they don't want to see the same kind of cuts at the federal level. Whether it's children with autism, health care, education, flood prevention...the list goes on and on and I don't think that's what the people of Ontario want from either their provincial government or their provincial government."
Schreiner thinks those voters will come in the Green Party's direction because a number of conservative voters have already reached out to him.
"They say, 'We want to support a party that will have good economic policies, is pro-business, is fiscally responsible but also wants to invest in our communities and not cut essential services.'"
He also despairs of the toxic and divisive rhetoric that is becoming common in politic today.
"we've seen more of that at Queen's Park. I see it every day as an MPP but we also see it in Ottawa and I think one of the things leading to the rise of the Green Party federally is the fact that people just want politics done differently. They're tired of the toxicity, they're tired of parties hurling insults at each other, they're tired of parties that are putting their own party's interest ahead of people's interest.
"They want a party that's going to put people first and put principle before power. A party that's going to put honesty and integrity first and that's what elected Greens are doing across the country and one of the reasons you're seeing so much more support for the Green Party. Plus we're staring the climate crisis in the face."
