Green Party leader makes last-ditch appeal to London North Centre voters on final campaign day

With hours left to go before the end of the provincial election campaign, Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner made a second and final stop in London on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to secure voters in hotly contested London North Centre.

London North Centre has emerged as a battleground riding in the province, and is expected to be a close race on Thursday. Ontario’s four main political parties have all made the riding a main stop during the election campaign.

Schreiner was joined early Wednesday afternoon by the party’s four London-area candidates, including London North Centre’s Carol Dyck, and other party supporters at the corner of Oxford Street and Wharncliffe Road for a brief campaign stop and media Q&A.

Addressing reporters, Schreiner touted previous campaign announcements from the party aimed at bolstering the green economy, including a $5-billion tech innovation fund and a $4-billion climate bank, aimed at supporting green innovation and helping green economy entrepreneurs and start-ups.

“This election comes at a critical moment in time for our climate and our economy, and the Ontario Greens know that we can deliver the economic solutions this province needs if we address the climate emergency, because climate action is job action,” Schreiner said in an address to reporters, lasing just over five minutes.

“Sadly you would not know that watching the campaigns of the other parties who have barely talked about delivering solutions for the climate crisis. Half measures and taking us backwards will not get the job done.”

The party also previously announced a plan to offer a year of free college tuition and a year of guaranteed work upon graduation to 60,000 young Ontarians to give them proper skills and experience to work in what the party has dubbed “the new climate economy.”

“We have the solutions. We have the innovations. We have the technology,” Schreiner said.

“We have the skilled labour force to be global leaders in the $26 trillion new climate economy, to attract and maximize the job opportunities in the 65 million jobs that will be created worldwide in the new climate economy.”

During his remarks, Schreiner slammed Ontario PC Party Leader Doug Ford, calling his agenda “anti-climate and anti-jobs,” referencing Ford’s decision to tear up 750 renewable energy contracts shortly after winning the 2018 election.

“It’s absolutely time for something new in Ontario. I think people are hungry for a new way of doing politics. New solutions to old problems,” Schreiner told Global News.

Included in the list of promises made by the Greens during the election campaign is a pledge to include mental health and addictions care in OHIP, and the doubling of Ontario Disability Support Program rates, a move later matched by the New Democrats.

“The fact that we’re forcing people with disabilities to live in poverty is unacceptable,” Schreiner said Wednesday.

“The Ontario Greens are going to continue to lead on ending poverty, lead on addressing the housing affordability crisis, lead on addressing the climate emergency and lead on fixing the systemic reasons why we’re facing a cost of living crisis.”

Speaking with Global News last month, Western political scientist Cameron Anderson said that, based on polling at the time, the race in London North Centre was likely to be a tossup between the NDP’s Terence Kernaghan and the PC’s Jerry Pribil.

“Most recently, the best polling I can find (suggests) a dead heat between the NDP and (Progressive Conservatives) with the Liberals not trailing too far behind,” Anderson said in an email on Wednesday.

On average, he said, it appeared that the NDP and Tories were in a dead heat polling in the low 30s, with the Liberals trailing by roughly eight points.

“Indeed, expected vote support for each of these parties lies within the margin of error meaning that any of these parties could win come election night. Of course, riding level estimates have pretty large margins of error so this (lessens) confidence in the precision of these estimates,” he said.

Schreiner’s London stop is one of several on the docket for the final day of campaigning. Schreiner appeared in Brantford and St. Thomas before arriving in London, and will stop in Kitchener in the mid-afternoon.

Elsewhere across the province, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca has two Toronto stops on his schedule, while NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is making multiple stops in the GTHA, including in Brampton, Brantford, Cambridge, Freelton, and Toronto.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford has a rally scheduled in Toronto at 8 p.m.

Polls suggest Ford’s Tories are the frontrunner party with a strong possibility of forming another majority government.

— with files from Andrew Graham and The Canadian Press

1:56 Final push for Ontario party leaders one day before provincial election