Guelph Politicast #3.1 - Mike Schreiner, Green Party of Ontario

It was always my intention to make the third season of the Guelph Politicast election centric, but I didn't think it would be provincial election centric. What is it they say about the best laid plans?

So season three of the Guelph Politicast will cover the Guelph candidates running to the Royal City's Member of Provincial Parliament. Obviously, the scheduling of the podcast will depend on the availability of the candidates, which is why it was something of a surprise when the first campaign to set a time and day for a sit down was the one being fronted by a provincial party leader. Yes, the first election edition Guelph Politicast of 2014 is with Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario and the Green candidate for the riding of Guelph. 

Guelph promises to be especially interesting this election cycle because we're home to a party leader and a current cabinet minister in the form of Education Minister Liz Sandals. Schreiner, for his part, is looking to capitalize on the strategy employed by federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May by finding a beachhead riding where there's traditionally strong Green support and concentrate on winning over that constituency to breakthrough into the legislature. It's a bold strategy, and Schreiner's followed through by keeping offices and staff here in Guelph for the last two years. 

Our interview touched on a number of areas including whether or not Schreiner would have voted in favour of the budget, the GPO's controversial plan to combine the Catholic and separate school boards, and fully funding all election promises. We also talked about his strategy as leader, including a question about how much campaigning he'll be doing province-wide, and whether or not he thinks he'll be allowed to participate in the leaders' debate. 

The theme music for Guelph Politicast is "Volksing Ferretismico" by Goto80 and the Uwe Schenk Band from Silent Movie Pianos 1 - Action and Marches. 

In addition to these podcast interviews, I will also be doing a video segment with the candidates asking them to respond to the question: What does it mean to you to represent the people of Guelph at Queen's Park? The music used in the video is "Good to Go" by Josh Woodward from The Simple Life Pt 2 available on freemusicarchive.org.

For more information on Guelph candidates, go to Elections Ontario's website wemakevotingeasy.ca.

You can stream the episode here, or download it from the source here.