Mike Schreiner’s election-night speech: “tonight the Green wave came to Ontario”

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Ontario has elected its first Green Party MPP. Mike Schreiner won his seat in the formerly Liberal-held riding of Guelph with 45 per cent of the vote, beating his Conservative opponent who won 21 per cent. Schreiner had a lot to say on election night—to his team, his city, Kathleen Wynne and Doug Ford. Here are the highlights of his speech:

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Thank you. Thank you. Oh my God, that took nine years, but we did it. Wow, so tonight the Green wave came to Ontario and came right here to Guelph. Together we’ve made history, and we’ve changed Ontario politics forever.

As your MPP I will pledge to work hard to strengthen relationships with Indigenous people, and I will always remember to look forward to the next seven generations in every decision I make as your MPP. Thank you, Guelph. Thank you for making history. Together we have shown what can happen when you vote for what you believe in.

I want to thank the other party leaders who ran in this election, and I especially want to take a moment to thank Kathleen Wynne for her services as premier of this province. I’ve had the opportunity to talk a lot about what I’ve accomplished before having a seat at Queen’s Park, and it’s partly because Premier Wynne listened when I came to her with ideas about how we could make Ontario better and acted on some of those ideas, and I want to thank her for that.

I’m ready to take my seat at Queen’s Park. I’m ready to take my seat at Queen’s Park to be a champion for Guelph and to be a strong voice to change the political status quo in this province. I want to work with other MPPs to build a bridge to the future, a bridge that we can walk across with confidence and compassion to make sure we leave a liveable planet for our children and grandchildren and the next seven generations. I will work hard to have Ontario leap in to the future and embrace the clean economy, and I believe Guelph will lead that change.

And whoever is the premier of this province, I will fight to protect the Greenbelt and expand it. I will work hard across party lines to make sure everyone in this province has a place they can afford to call home, to improve healthcare and make sure everyone has access to mental health services they deserve.

I want to be very clear to Doug Ford: you said in the debate that you believe climate change was real and people were causing it, and so you better listen to the Green MPP from Guelph.

• Doug Ford’s victory speech: ‘Ontario is open for business’
• Kathleen Wynne’s concession speech: ‘I am resigning’
• Andrea Horwath’s election night speech: ‘Change for the better’