The Green Party of Ontario's victory in Guelph in Thursday night's election has a local candidate feeling optimistic.
Party Leader Mike Schreiner was elected to provincial parliament, sending a Green to Queen's Park for the first time.
“Next time, we'll do way better because he'll be in the debates,” said Simcoe North candidate Valerie Powell, who secured 3,615 votes, which was more than she had anticipated.
She said she knew she wasn’t going to win this riding, so her goal was to increase her support in the area, a target she achieved, upping the percentage of votes received to 6.65 as compared to 4.5 in the 2015 byelection.
With this campaign, Powell said, the party has encouraged more people to think about the environment, the democratic voting system and the economic future, which she said is based on the environment.
She and many other local Green supporters were celebrating the election of their leader.
“That was the goal,” said Powell. “He'll be visible and he'll make a difference in the legislature.”
Turnouts at debates in the area showed her people were more involved than ever before, but they still need to be educated about a better system of election, Powell said, adding a majority government is not the best way of governing.
“One party cannot possibly make the decisions for all Ontarians,” she said. “It takes all parties to work out the best possible solution.”
She said the election seemed American in some ways: a democratic farce.
“It seems we've gone from people wanting to vote for something to getting caught up in voting against things,” said Powell. “To me, it's not democratic anymore.”
A different voting system, such as proportional representation, would be encouraging for candidates no matter how many votes they win, Powell said, and people will know their votes counted for something.
