With a provincial election unofficially called for next month, most local riding associations are working to get their candidates in place so they can contest for Guelph’s the seat at Queen’s Park.
So far, the Greens and NDP are the only major parties with a declared candidate in place – incumbent MPP Mike Schreiner for the Greens and Cameron Spence for the NDP.
Premier Doug Ford, who oversees a majority government, said he plans to announce an election on Wednesday, to be held on Feb. 27. In the absence of an early dissolution, the next scheduled provincial election is set for June, 2026.
Here’s a look at where the four major parties are locally in terms of candidate selection and election readiness:
Green Party
MPP Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, will be seeking a return the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He was selected in November as his party’s Guelph candidate for the next provincial election.
Schreiner has twice been elected to represent the riding, winning the seat in 2018 and 2022.
“We have been anticipating this election and we moved into readiness from early November,” explained riding association president Rob Ramage in an email to GuelphToday.
“Our volunteer group has already knocked on the doors or called thousands of voters in Guelph and we just had the best year-end fundraising campaign in the history of our party in this riding.”
Liberal Party
When GuelphToday reached out to the local provincial Liberal riding association for comment, party leader Bonnie Crombie's director of communications responded.
"We are in the process of getting a candidate for Guelph," Taylor Deasley said via email, without commenting what else the association is doing or has done to prepare for the election call.
New Democratic Party
Local NDPers acclaimed their candidates this past Saturday, during the riding association’s annual general meeting.
Candidate confirmation wasn’t initially expected to happen during the AGM, but it was added in response to the pending election call, explained Bonnie Powell, NDP riding association president.
The NDP’s declared candidate is Cameron Spence. In a brief biography supplied by Powell, Cameron is described as a high school dropout who went on to earn a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a PhD in global health and social medicine from King’s College London.
Following a workplace injury at a Guelph factory, he transitioned to marketing.
Once a candidate is formalized, Powell said the association is ready to begin campaigning, with volunteers trained, initial sign locations selected and social media accounts prepped.
Progressive Conservative Party
There are “a few” people seeking the PCP nomination for Guelph, said riding association president Bob Coole, who hopes to have a candidate in place soon.
“We’re doing all the things we have to do to get a campaign going,” said Coole, explaining the association has been busy organizing volunteers, fundraising and more.
Coole announced last month the search for a Guelph candidate had begun.
The final numbers for Guelph in June, 2022 were:
Mike Schreiner (Green): 29,752 (54.45%)
Peter McSherry (Conservative): 11,149 (20.41%)
Raechelle Devereaux (Liberal): 7,263 (13.29%)
James Parr (NDP): 4,402 (8.06%)
Will Lomker (New Blue): 1,619 (2.96%)
Juanita Burnett (Communist): 251 (0.46%)
Paul Watson (NOTAP): 202 (0.37%)
As reported by Elections Ontario, the 2022 contest saw 49.39 per cent (54,898 of 111,147) of eligible Guelph voters cast a ballot.