The Green Party in Kitchener-Centre is getting ready for a provincial by-election later this year.

Nearly 100 people showed up on Tuesday May 2 for the nomination event in the pavilion. Members from Kitchener Centre were complemented by small groups from Waterloo, Guelph (including MPP Mike Schreiner), and elsewhere. 

All four candidates had a chance to give a speech while the votes were being tallied online. At the end of the hour, the winner was announced: current city councilor, Aislinn Clancy.

“It takes a lot of juice to win,” she said. Then she implored us to charge our batteries and get ready for a fight. “The climate can’t wait”, and “we can’t leave it to the people that broke it to fix it”… “We have no choice but to act”. Like many of us, the tide turned for her when she saw the scale of the environmental problems our current policies are promoting.

She continued, explaining that Green candidates help us to live our values by allowing us to vote for an outsized voice in parliament. Green political activism is the antidote to our existential angst caused by climate change and urban sprawl, she explained. Helping people to live their values is important. We should all be living our values everyday. 

Aislinn is also strongly rooted in Kitchener. She called out the financial pain that renters are feeling and how some kids are being failed by the education system.

After she spoke, donations to her campaign poured in both from the dozens of Zoom attendees, and clipboards were passed around the pavilion to record pledges. Winning elections takes money, and Aislinn is already on a roll for the bi-election around the corner.

Take action to support Greens in Kitchener: support Aislinn’s campaign: or sign up to volunteer on Aislinn’s campaign. See you out there!