Guelph Greens to Make Miller Official on Monday

Although he presently has no competition and it seems likely that his name is going to be on the ballot when Guelphites vote in this fall's Federal Election, former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario Gord Miller will make his nomination for the Green Party official in a meeting this coming Monday night.

The nomination meeting will take place on Monday June 8 at 7 pm at the Red Chevron Club of Guelph at 34 Elizabeth St. In order to vote, you will have had to have been a Green Party member more than 30 days prior to the meeting, although members with lapsed memberships will be able to renew at the meeting without loss of voting rights.

So why come to a meeting for a political party you may not be a part of? Well, Elizabeth May will be in attendance, which perhaps indicates just how important and valued Miller is as a star candidate for the Greens. 

The last time there was an open race in Guelph (ie: with no incumbent running) was 2008, in which Mike Nagy won 21 per cent of the vote with a strong third place finish behind Frank Valeriote (32) and Gloria Kovach (29). Of course, '08 was Nagy's second election and he had strong momentum from a by-election race that was scheduled to take place the day before the full general election was called. Can Miller hope to make the same impact after his recent repatriation to Guelph? The Greens seem fairly confident they can make a breakthrough here as evidenced by Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner's decision to keep the Royal City his base for electoral aspirations.

Miller's acclimation will mark the final major party candidate to join the 2015 race. Miller will be running against, Llloyd Longfield (Liberal), Gloria Kovach (Conservative) and Andrew Seagram (NDP) for the right to represent Guelph in Ottawa when the election is called for what is widely expected to be October 19.