According to unofficial results, the PCs beat the Greens by just 2,144 votes—by no means a landslide when you consider that a total of 44,522 votes were cast. That means 40.7 per cent of those who voted, voted Green compared to 45.4 per cent who voted PC.
The narrow divide, plus the fact that the Greens almost doubled their vote since 2018 (from 9,438 votes to the unofficial 18,102 votes this time around)—votes that have been steadily increasing with every elections—is a clear indication that people in this riding are getting tired of politics as usual, said Parry Sound-Muskoka Green Party candidate Matt Richter.
“I can only speculate what would’ve happened if more… voters came out to vote but at the same time, we live with what happened and we doubled our vote,” he noted.
He said finding solutions to the affordable housing crisis, ensuring that health care really looks after our elderly in a meaningful way and brings mental health into the OHIP plan, and a genuine commitment to tackling the climate crisis are things that matter to people.
Richter also said he hopes the PCs, truthfully and honestly, reconsider the $10 billion highway project “when that money can go to so many other pressing needs,” he said, adding that reversing the decision to build Highway 413 which would destroy valuable farmland is the right thing to do.
Richter sent Smith a congratulatory message but also a reminder that being the MPP for the riding is a tremendous responsibility. “It’s not a one-off when people ask for politics to be done across party lines, and for politics that put people ahead of party and I really hope that following this election, that we see Graydon showing up at different events where policy is being discussed so that people can be heard,” said Richter, who wished Smith the best in his new role as Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP.
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Brian Samuell says
We’ll get the best of both worlds now I guess. We’ll get the hospital the PC’s promised us. The Old Boys will realize that we won’t let them govern us like this any more. The younger end of the voter list will grow and the older end will shrink. By the time of the next election we’ll go Green.
Bring it on Graydon show us what you can do.
Bob Slater says
Brian Samuell … Go Green will not promote jobs, investment, infrastructure, investment etc etc… so I doubt your premise .. “The younger end of the voter list will grow and the older end will shrink.” … ie. No jobs etc etc .. the young will not stay here ..can’t live on summer job ‘green’ tourist economy … but do agree …”Bring it on Graydon show us what you can do.” ! FYI .. The stats show it is NOT the “The younger end” moving here!
Diana Mitchell says
I believe one of the main reasons that Green got so high was because we are all concerned about giving up farm land to more concrete. Housing, health care, education, high inflation are all very important but at the end of the day the most important thing is food. In Ontario, growing season is so very short. We have so little land that can grow our vegetables, etc. (especially fruits like peaches, and cherries), and so we really need to preserve this land for growing food. Importing food may be easy at the moment, but the state the world is in, who knows what can happen, so we need forethought (which can be hard). Perhaps we need to concentrate on making public transit more accessible to people with easy parking at the stations, so people would find it easier and quicker to use and worth their while to use.
Bill Beatty says
With all due respect to Green and great guy Matt , it is pretty obvious that the dismal failure of the no party status Liberals to field a sacrificial lamb , led to Matt getting all the Grit anti-Ford votes , No doubt Green would have increased their numbers as the NDP and Libs floundered badly .Green was much preferred to those groups . Congrats Graydon…Do Us proud .