Muskoka, Mon., February 10, 2025 — The grassroots community group Climate Action Muskoka (CAM) is pleased to announce its endorsement of Matt Richter of the Green Party of Ontario as its Parry Sound-Muskoka candidate in the upcoming provincial election.
This is the first time since its formation in 2019 that CAM has endorsed a candidate.* We support Matt Richter for the following reasons:
- Matt has a long and strong track record as a community leader and climate activist.
- Matt’s 5-point plan fights for the citizens of Parry Sound-Muskoka as well as our climate: supporting affordability, housing, healthcare, education, rural infrastructure and of course, the environment.
- The Green Party of Ontario has consistently demonstrated support for everyday Ontarians over cronyism and big business; tabling bills for affordable housing, Greenbelt protection, tenants’ rights, affordable electric vehicles, and for municipalities to charge gas companies for use of municipal property.
- Matt can win: Many of us have met Matt at our front doors. He is a well-known and respected Green candidate who in the 2022 election received more than 40% of the vote.
Meanwhile: The Ford government has since 2018 flouted accountability to Ontario’s citizens and demonstrated outright hostility to climate action; tearing out EV chargers, wind turbines and bike lanes and weakening environmental protections. They slashed firefighting budgets and attempted to pave over the Greenbelt.
Incumbent MPP and Minister of Natural Resources Graydon Smith has let us down locally by weakening wetland protection, promoting centralized government and undermining municipal autonomy (source). In its 2024 annual report, Ontario’s Auditor General called out the Ford government — and Smith’s Ministry of Natural Resources for violating Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights, providing insufficient consultation with the general public, conservation authorities and Indigenous communities and understating negative environmental impacts of its actions.
As deputy leader of the Green Party of Ontario, Matt Richter is a strong voice empowered to vote for local solutions that support us, our communities and our climate, including affordable and carbon-neutral housing, a decarbonized transportation sector and giving Ontario municipalities the tools they need to fulfill our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.
Climate Action Muskoka is an inclusive, non-partisan Muskoka-based group whose purpose is to collaborate with individuals, businesses, groups and all levels of government to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. *Like other non-partisan groups and politicians—including some local politicians—in the runup to elections we can choose to endorse candidates on an ad hoc basis, reserving the right to endorse other candidates or refrain from endorsing in future.
Signed: Sue McKenzie and Len Ring, Gravenhurst | Lesley Hastie, Huntsville | Linda Mathers, Port Carling | Tamsen Tillson, Bracebridge | Madelaine Earl, Sprucedale on behalf of Climate Action Muskoka